Supreme Court Ends FTC Independence, Opening US Data Privacy Enforcement Gap

On June 29, the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision in Trump v. Slaughter that struck down the 1935 precedent protecting Federal Trade Commission commissioners from political firing, meaning the agency now answers directly to the president. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that the FTC exercises core executive power and must be subject to removal by the president, stating in the ruling: "If anything more is left of Humphrey's, we overrule it." The ruling eliminates for-cause protections for FTC commissioners, converting what was previously a political risk into a constitutional mandate where enforcement priorities shift with administrations. The decision affects nearly every other independent multi-member agency, including the National Labor Relations Board and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, though the Federal Reserve was carved out in a companion ruling the same day.