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], "paragraphs": [ { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_1" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_2" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_3" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_4" }, { "text": "1:25-cv-00909-LLA", "paragraph_id": "para_5" }, { "text": "Filed On: September 2, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_6" }, { "text": "Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, in her official and", "paragraph_id": "para_7" }, { "text": "personal capacities and Alvaro M. Bedoya, in", "paragraph_id": "para_8" }, { "text": "his official and personal capacities,", "paragraph_id": "para_9" }, { "text": "Appellees", "paragraph_id": "para_10" }, { "text": "v.", "paragraph_id": "para_11" }, { "text": "Donald J. Trump, in his official capacity as", "paragraph_id": "para_12" }, { "text": "President of the United States, et al.,", "paragraph_id": "para_13" }, { "text": "Appellants", "paragraph_id": "para_14" }, { "text": "BEFORE: Millett, Pillard, and Rao*, Circuit Judges", "paragraph_id": "para_15" }, { "text": "O R D E R", "paragraph_id": "para_16" }, { "text": "Upon consideration of the emergency motion for stay pending appeal, the", "paragraph_id": "para_17" }, { "text": "response thereto, and the reply; and the motion to expedite the appeal and the", "paragraph_id": "para_18" }, { "text": "response thereto, it is", "paragraph_id": "para_19" }, { "text": "ORDERED that the administrative stay entered on July 21, 2025, be dissolved. It", "paragraph_id": "para_20" }, { "text": "is", "paragraph_id": "para_21" }, { "text": "FURTHER ORDERED that the motion for stay pending appeal be denied. It is", "paragraph_id": "para_22" }, { "text": "FURTHER ORDERED that the motion to expedite the appeal be denied.", "paragraph_id": "para_23" }, { "text": "Appellee’s claims with respect to irreparable harm and to the public interest in a fully", "paragraph_id": "para_24" }, { "text": "constituted Federal Trade Commission are rendered moot by the dissolution of the", "paragraph_id": "para_25" }, { "text": "administrative stay and the denial of appellants’ motion for stay pending appeal.", "paragraph_id": "para_26" }, { "text": "Appellee’s remaining arguments do not justify expedition of this appeal.", "paragraph_id": "para_27" }, { "text": "* A statement by Circuit Judge Rao dissenting from the denial of a stay is attached.", "paragraph_id": "para_28" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_29" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_30" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_31" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_32" }, { "text": "President Trump fired Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter without", "paragraph_id": "para_33" }, { "text": "cause. The district court ordered her reinstatement. The government now seeks a stay", "paragraph_id": "para_34" }, { "text": "of that decision pending appeal. That motion must be denied. The government has no", "paragraph_id": "para_35" }, { "text": "likelihood of success on appeal given controlling and directly on point Supreme Court", "paragraph_id": "para_36" }, { "text": "precedent. Specifically, ninety years ago, a unanimous Supreme Court upheld the", "paragraph_id": "para_37" }, { "text": "constitutionality of the Federal Trade Commission Act’s for-cause removal protection for", "paragraph_id": "para_38" }, { "text": "Federal Trade Commissioners. See Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_39" }, { "text": "602 (1935). Over the ensuing decades—and fully informed of the substantial executive", "paragraph_id": "para_40" }, { "text": "power exercised by the Commission—the Supreme Court has repeatedly and expressly", "paragraph_id": "para_41" }, { "text": "left Humphrey’s Executor in place, and so precluded Presidents from removing", "paragraph_id": "para_42" }, { "text": "Commissioners at will. Then just four months ago, the Supreme Court stated that", "paragraph_id": "para_43" }, { "text": "adherence to extant precedent like Humphrey’s Executor controls in resolving stay", "paragraph_id": "para_44" }, { "text": "motions.", "paragraph_id": "para_45" }, { "text": "To grant a stay would be to defy the Supreme Court's decisions that bind our", "paragraph_id": "para_46" }, { "text": "judgments. That we will not do.", "paragraph_id": "para_47" }, { "text": "I", "paragraph_id": "para_48" }, { "text": "A stay pending appeal is an “extraordinary” remedy. Citizens for Resp. & Ethics", "paragraph_id": "para_49" }, { "text": "in Washington v. Federal Election Comm’n, 904 F.3d 1014, 1017 (D.C. Cir. 2018) (per", "paragraph_id": "para_50" }, { "text": "curiam). To obtain such exceptional relief, the stay applicant must (1) make a “strong", "paragraph_id": "para_51" }, { "text": "showing that [it] is likely to succeed on the merits” of the appeal; (2) demonstrate that it", "paragraph_id": "para_52" }, { "text": "will be “irreparably injured” before the appeal concludes; (3) show that issuing a stay will", "paragraph_id": "para_53" }, { "text": "not “substantially injure the other parties interested in the proceeding”; and (4) establish", "paragraph_id": "para_54" }, { "text": "that “the public interest” favors a stay. Nken v. Holder, 556 U.S. 418, 434 (2009)", "paragraph_id": "para_55" }, { "text": "(quoting Hilton v. Braunskill, 481 U.S. 770, 776 (1987)).", "paragraph_id": "para_56" }, { "text": "The “first two” of these factors—the applicant’s likelihood of success on the", "paragraph_id": "para_57" }, { "text": "merits and the existence of an irreparable injury absent a stay—“are the most critical.”", "paragraph_id": "para_58" }, { "text": "Nken, 556 U.S. at 434. Further, because federal courts have no freestanding ability to", "paragraph_id": "para_59" }, { "text": "dispense remedies apart from a favorable judgment for a party, the likelihood of", "paragraph_id": "para_60" }, { "text": "success necessarily carries great weight in the stay analysis. See generally Virginian", "paragraph_id": "para_61" }, { "text": "Ry. Co. v. United States, 272 U.S. 658, 672 (1926) (“A stay is not a matter of right, even", "paragraph_id": "para_62" }, { "text": "if irreparable injury might otherwise result to the appellant.”); Curry v. Baker, 479 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_63" }, { "text": "1301, 1302 (1986) (Powell, J., in chambers) (“It is no doubt true that, absent [a stay],", "paragraph_id": "para_64" }, { "text": "the applicant here will suffer irreparable injury. This fact alone is not sufficient to justify", "paragraph_id": "para_65" }, { "text": "Page 2", "paragraph_id": "para_66" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_67" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_68" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_69" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_70" }, { "text": "a stay[.]”); Citizens for Resp. & Ethics in Washington, 904 F.3d at 1019 (“Crossroads’", "paragraph_id": "para_71" }, { "text": "appeal shows little prospect of success—an arguably fatal flaw for a stay application.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_72" }, { "text": "II", "paragraph_id": "para_73" }, { "text": "The government is not likely to succeed on appeal because any ruling in its favor", "paragraph_id": "para_74" }, { "text": "from this court would have to defy binding, on-point, and repeatedly preserved Supreme", "paragraph_id": "para_75" }, { "text": "Court precedent. Bucking such precedent is not within this court’s job description.", "paragraph_id": "para_76" }, { "text": "More than 100 years ago, Congress established the Federal Trade Commission.", "paragraph_id": "para_77" }, { "text": "See Federal Trade Commission Act, Pub. L. No. 63-203, 38 Stat. 717 (1914) (codified", "paragraph_id": "para_78" }, { "text": "as amended at 15 U.S.C. § 41 et seq.). The Commission is led by a group of five", "paragraph_id": "para_79" }, { "text": "Commissioners, no more than three of whom may be members of the same political", "paragraph_id": "para_80" }, { "text": "party. 15 U.S.C. § 41. Once nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate,", "paragraph_id": "para_81" }, { "text": "Commissioners serve seven-year terms. Id. A duly appointed Commissioner may be", "paragraph_id": "para_82" }, { "text": "removed by the President only “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in", "paragraph_id": "para_83" }, { "text": "office.” Id.", "paragraph_id": "para_84" }, { "text": "The key substantive question presented by the government’s appeal is whether", "paragraph_id": "para_85" }, { "text": "the statute providing the Commissioners for-cause removal protection unconstitutionally", "paragraph_id": "para_86" }, { "text": "infringes on the President’s Article II power. The government is highly unlikely to", "paragraph_id": "para_87" }, { "text": "succeed on appeal because that exact question was already asked and unanimously", "paragraph_id": "para_88" }, { "text": "answered by the Supreme Court adversely to the government’s position 90 years ago in", "paragraph_id": "para_89" }, { "text": "Humphrey’s Executor, 295 U.S. 602. Since then, the Supreme Court has expressly", "paragraph_id": "para_90" }, { "text": "refused five times to reconsider Humphrey’s Executor, including as recently as 2021.", "paragraph_id": "para_91" }, { "text": "See Wiener v. United States, 357 U.S. 349, 356 (1958); Morrison v. Olson, 487 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_92" }, { "text": "654, 686–696 (1988); Free Enter. Fund v. Public Co. Acct. Oversight Board, 561 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_93" }, { "text": "477, 483 (2010); Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Fin. Prot. Bureau, 591 U.S. 197, 228", "paragraph_id": "para_94" }, { "text": "(2020); Collins v. Yellen, 594 U.S. 220, 250–251 (2021).", "paragraph_id": "para_95" }, { "text": "Humphrey’s Executor controls this case and binds this court. And recent", "paragraph_id": "para_96" }, { "text": "developments on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket do not permit this court to do", "paragraph_id": "para_97" }, { "text": "the Supreme Court’s job of reconsidering that precedent.", "paragraph_id": "para_98" }, { "text": "A", "paragraph_id": "para_99" }, { "text": "By default, Article II vests the President with the authority to remove Executive", "paragraph_id": "para_100" }, { "text": "officers. See Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52, 117, 163–164 (1926). But that", "paragraph_id": "para_101" }, { "text": "Page 3", "paragraph_id": "para_102" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_103" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_104" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_105" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_106" }, { "text": "power is not unlimited. In Humphrey’s Executor, the Supreme Court unanimously held", "paragraph_id": "para_107" }, { "text": "that the Federal Trade Commission Act does not violate Article II by limiting the", "paragraph_id": "para_108" }, { "text": "President’s power to remove Commissioners except for cause. 295 U.S. at 626–632.", "paragraph_id": "para_109" }, { "text": "In so ruling, the Supreme Court held that it is “plain under the Constitution that illimitable", "paragraph_id": "para_110" }, { "text": "power of removal is not possessed by the President in respect of officers” wielding", "paragraph_id": "para_111" }, { "text": "power of what it then termed a “quasi-judicial” or “quasi-legislative” “character.”", "paragraph_id": "para_112" }, { "text": "Humphrey’s Executor, 295 U.S. at 624, 628–629. The Court concluded “that no", "paragraph_id": "para_113" }, { "text": "removal can be made during the prescribed term for which the [Commissioner] is", "paragraph_id": "para_114" }, { "text": "appointed, except for one or more of the causes named in the applicable statute.” Id. at", "paragraph_id": "para_115" }, { "text": "631–632.", "paragraph_id": "para_116" }, { "text": "That statutory removal provision is the exact same statute at issue in this", "paragraph_id": "para_117" }, { "text": "litigation: 15 U.S.C. § 41.", "paragraph_id": "para_118" }, { "text": "In the intervening decades, the Supreme Court has not overruled Humphrey’s", "paragraph_id": "para_119" }, { "text": "Executor. Quite the opposite, it has preserved Humphrey’s Executor at every turn.", "paragraph_id": "para_120" }, { "text": "In Wiener, the Court expressly relied on the “philosophy” and “explicit language”", "paragraph_id": "para_121" }, { "text": "of Humphrey’s Executor to unanimously uphold for-cause removal protection for", "paragraph_id": "para_122" }, { "text": "members of the War Claims Commission. 357 U.S. at 356. That Commission resolved", "paragraph_id": "para_123" }, { "text": "Americans’ injury and property claims arising from World War II. Id. at 350. In carrying", "paragraph_id": "para_124" }, { "text": "out that task, the War Claims Commission issued final and unreviewable decisions that", "paragraph_id": "para_125" }, { "text": "required funds to be paid from the Treasury Department’s War Claims Fund to", "paragraph_id": "para_126" }, { "text": "Americans. Id. at 354–356.", "paragraph_id": "para_127" }, { "text": "Thirty years later, in Morrison, the Supreme Court again preserved Humphrey’s", "paragraph_id": "para_128" }, { "text": "Executor in upholding a statutory removal protection for the independent counsel. 487", "paragraph_id": "para_129" }, { "text": "U.S. at 686–696. In so ruling, the Court acknowledged that the powers the Federal", "paragraph_id": "para_130" }, { "text": "Trade Commission exercises would be recognized today as exercises of the “executive”", "paragraph_id": "para_131" }, { "text": "power. Id. at 686–691, 689 n.28 (applying Humphrey’s Executor even though the", "paragraph_id": "para_132" }, { "text": "“powers of the FTC at the time of Humphrey’s Executor would at the present time be", "paragraph_id": "para_133" }, { "text": "considered ‘executive,’ at least to some degree”).", "paragraph_id": "para_134" }, { "text": "This trend has continued in recent years even as the Supreme Court has", "paragraph_id": "para_135" }, { "text": "narrowed the constitutional scope of limits on the removal power in other contexts. See", "paragraph_id": "para_136" }, { "text": "Free Enter. Fund, 561 U.S. at 483 (acknowledging and leaving intact Humphrey’s", "paragraph_id": "para_137" }, { "text": "Executor); Seila Law, 591 U.S. at 228 (“[W]e do not revisit Humphrey’s Executor or any", "paragraph_id": "para_138" }, { "text": "other precedent today * * * *”); Collins, 594 U.S. at 250–251 (reiterating that Seila Law", "paragraph_id": "para_139" }, { "text": "Page 4", "paragraph_id": "para_140" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_141" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_142" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_143" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_144" }, { "text": "did not overrule Humphrey’s Executor, but merely “found ‘compelling reasons not to", "paragraph_id": "para_145" }, { "text": "extend’” Humphrey’s Executor to a “novel context”) (quoting Seila Law, 591 U.S. at", "paragraph_id": "para_146" }, { "text": "204). In fact, in Seila Law, a majority of the Supreme Court invited Congress to remake", "paragraph_id": "para_147" }, { "text": "the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the same mold as the Federal Trade", "paragraph_id": "para_148" }, { "text": "Commission, which Humphrey’s Executor had upheld. See 591 U.S. at 237 (Roberts,", "paragraph_id": "para_149" }, { "text": "C.J., joined by Alito and Kavanaugh, JJ., concurring in the judgment); id. at 298 (Kagan,", "paragraph_id": "para_150" }, { "text": "J., joined by Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor, JJ., concurring in the judgment with", "paragraph_id": "para_151" }, { "text": "respect to severability and dissenting in part).", "paragraph_id": "para_152" }, { "text": "For 90 years, then, Humphrey’s Executor has remained “in place” as an", "paragraph_id": "para_153" }, { "text": "exception to the general rule that the President enjoys unrestricted removal power over", "paragraph_id": "para_154" }, { "text": "executive officers. Seila Law, 591 U.S. at 215. And prior decisions of this court have", "paragraph_id": "para_155" }, { "text": "repeatedly—and recently—recognized as much. See Severino v. Biden, 71 F.4th 1038,", "paragraph_id": "para_156" }, { "text": "1047–48 (D.C. Cir. 2023); Federal Election Comm’n v. National Rifle Ass’n Political", "paragraph_id": "para_157" }, { "text": "Victory Fund, 6 F.3d 821, 826 (D.C. Cir. 1993); see also Meta Platforms, Inc. v. Federal", "paragraph_id": "para_158" }, { "text": "Trade Comm’n, No. 24-5054, 2024 WL 1549732, at *2 (D.C. Cir. Mar. 29, 2024).", "paragraph_id": "para_159" }, { "text": "B", "paragraph_id": "para_160" }, { "text": "The government acknowledges that Humphrey’s Executor “remains binding on", "paragraph_id": "para_161" }, { "text": "this Court,” but nevertheless argues that this court should disregard that binding", "paragraph_id": "para_162" }, { "text": "precedent and enter a stay. Gov’t Stay Mot. 15. Because we take the Supreme Court", "paragraph_id": "para_163" }, { "text": "at its word, the government’s arguments have no prospect of success on appeal, which", "paragraph_id": "para_164" }, { "text": "weighs heavily against granting a stay.", "paragraph_id": "para_165" }, { "text": "1", "paragraph_id": "para_166" }, { "text": "First, the government claims that the Federal Trade Commission has outgrown", "paragraph_id": "para_167", "court_paragraph": 1 }, { "text": "Humphrey’s Executor. In the government’s view, the Commission’s authority has", "paragraph_id": "para_168" }, { "text": "expanded since 1935 such that its Commissioners now wield the kind of executive", "paragraph_id": "para_169" }, { "text": "power that requires they be removable at will. Gov’t Stay Mot. 17. That argument fails", "paragraph_id": "para_170" }, { "text": "to persuade.", "paragraph_id": "para_171" }, { "text": "As the district court well explained, the present-day Commission exercises the", "paragraph_id": "para_172" }, { "text": "same powers that the Court understood it to have in 1935 when Humphrey’s Executor", "paragraph_id": "para_173" }, { "text": "was decided. See Slaughter v. Trump, No. CV 25-909, 2025 WL 1984396, at *11–13", "paragraph_id": "para_174" }, { "text": "(D.D.C. July 17, 2025); see also Seila Law, 591 U.S. at 219 n.4 (“[W]hat matters” for", "paragraph_id": "para_175" }, { "text": "Page 5", "paragraph_id": "para_176" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_177" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_178" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_179" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_180" }, { "text": "assessing Humphrey’s Executor “is the set of powers the Court considered as the basis", "paragraph_id": "para_181" }, { "text": "for its decision[.]”).", "paragraph_id": "para_182" }, { "text": "Then, as now, the Commission could investigate potential violations of federal", "paragraph_id": "para_183" }, { "text": "law, including by issuing subpoenas and seeking their enforcement. As the Supreme", "paragraph_id": "para_184" }, { "text": "Court recognized, the 1935 Commission had “wide powers of investigation[,]”", "paragraph_id": "para_185" }, { "text": "Humphrey’s Executor, 295 U.S. at 621, including the power to launch investigations “at", "paragraph_id": "para_186" }, { "text": "its own instance[,]” Brief for Samuel F. Rathbun, Executor, at 46 n.21, Humphrey’s", "paragraph_id": "para_187" }, { "text": "Executor, 295 U.S. 602 (1935) (No. 667). In particular, the Federal Trade Commission", "paragraph_id": "para_188" }, { "text": "Act, which the Court closely examined in Humphrey’s Executor, 295 U.S. at 619–620,", "paragraph_id": "para_189" }, { "text": "authorized the 1935 Commission to “gather and compile information * * * and to", "paragraph_id": "para_190" }, { "text": "investigate” corporate practices; to demand “both annual and special[] reports or", "paragraph_id": "para_191" }, { "text": "answers” from corporations; and to issue subpoenas and enforce them in federal court.", "paragraph_id": "para_192" }, { "text": "Federal Trade Commission Act, §§ 6, 9, 38 Stat. at 721–723. The modern-day", "paragraph_id": "para_193" }, { "text": "Commission’s investigatory powers fit the same mold. The Commission continues to", "paragraph_id": "para_194" }, { "text": "“gather and compile” information, 15 U.S.C. § 46(a); and issue subpoenas, id. § 49, and", "paragraph_id": "para_195" }, { "text": "civil investigative demands, id. § 57b-1(c).", "paragraph_id": "para_196" }, { "text": "In 1935, as now, the Commission could also prosecute violations by issuing", "paragraph_id": "para_197" }, { "text": "administrative complaints. Compare Humphrey’s Executor, 295 U.S. at 620 (“[T]he", "paragraph_id": "para_198" }, { "text": "[C]ommission must issue a complaint stating its charges and giving notice of hearing", "paragraph_id": "para_199" }, { "text": "upon a day to be fixed.”), with 15 U.S.C. § 45(b) (The Commission “shall issue * * * a", "paragraph_id": "para_200" }, { "text": "complaint stating its charges * * * and containing a notice of a hearing upon a day and", "paragraph_id": "para_201" }, { "text": "at a place therein fixed at least thirty days after the service of said complaint.”). As part", "paragraph_id": "para_202" }, { "text": "of this authority, the Commission could order parties to show cause and cease and", "paragraph_id": "para_203" }, { "text": "desist from certain actions. Humphrey’s Executor, 295 U.S. at 620. And, if a cease-", "paragraph_id": "para_204" }, { "text": "and-desist order were disobeyed, the Commission itself could “apply” directly to circuit", "paragraph_id": "para_205" }, { "text": "courts for “enforcement” of those orders, id. at 620–662—a power that parallels the", "paragraph_id": "para_206" }, { "text": "Commission’s current authority to seek injunctions in federal court, 15 U.S.C. § 53(b);", "paragraph_id": "para_207" }, { "text": "see also Slaughter, 2025 WL 1984396, at *13; LabMD, Inc. v. Federal Trade Comm’n,", "paragraph_id": "para_208" }, { "text": "894 F.3d 1221, 1233 (11th Cir. 2018) (“The cease and desist order and the injunction", "paragraph_id": "para_209" }, { "text": "address the same behavior and contain the same command: discontinue engaging in a", "paragraph_id": "para_210" }, { "text": "specific unfair act or practice.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_211" }, { "text": "And in 1935, as now, the Commission could promulgate rules and regulations, as", "paragraph_id": "para_212" }, { "text": "well as issue reports. See Humphrey’s Executor, 295 U.S. at 624, 628; see also", "paragraph_id": "para_213" }, { "text": "Immigration & Naturalization Serv. v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919, 953 n.16 (1983) (noting", "paragraph_id": "para_214" }, { "text": "that the Court in Humphrey’s Executor referred to “rule making” as “quasi-legislative”);", "paragraph_id": "para_215" }, { "text": "Page 6", "paragraph_id": "para_216" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_217" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_218" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_219" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_220" }, { "text": "see also Federal Trade Commission Act § 6(g), 38 Stat. at 722 (permitting the", "paragraph_id": "para_221" }, { "text": "Commission to “make rules and regulations”); National Petroleum Refiners Ass’n v.", "paragraph_id": "para_222" }, { "text": "Federal Trade Comm’n, 482 F.2d 672, 685–686 (D.C. Cir. 1973) (holding that the plain", "paragraph_id": "para_223" }, { "text": "language of the Federal Trade Commission Act “confirms the framers’ intent to allow", "paragraph_id": "para_224" }, { "text": "exercise of [substantive rulemaking] power”).", "paragraph_id": "para_225" }, { "text": "The government emphasizes that the present-day Commission can seek", "paragraph_id": "para_226" }, { "text": "monetary penalties against private parties in federal court. Gov’t Stay Mot. 13–14; see", "paragraph_id": "para_227" }, { "text": "also Meredith v. Federal Mine Safety & Health Rev. Comm’n, 177 F.3d 1042, 1050 n.5", "paragraph_id": "para_228" }, { "text": "(D.C. Cir. 1999) (“[A] civil penalty constitutes something other than monetary damages,", "paragraph_id": "para_229" }, { "text": "which the Supreme Court has described as ‘a sum of money used as compensatory", "paragraph_id": "para_230" }, { "text": "relief[.]’”) (quoting Department of the Army v. Blue Fox, Inc., 525 U.S. 255, 262 (1999)).", "paragraph_id": "para_231" }, { "text": "But much of that authority stems from the Commission’s 1935 authority to issue cease-", "paragraph_id": "para_232" }, { "text": "and-desist orders. See 15 U.S.C. § 45(l), (m)(1)(B). This power is therefore an", "paragraph_id": "para_233" }, { "text": "“outgrowth[]” of the Commission’s original enforcement and remedial powers, not a", "paragraph_id": "para_234" }, { "text": "“dramatic transformation[] of the ‘character of the office.’” Slaughter, 2025 WL 1984396,", "paragraph_id": "para_235" }, { "text": "at *12 (quoting Humphrey’s Executor, 295 U.S. at 632).", "paragraph_id": "para_236" }, { "text": "To be sure, the Supreme Court has characterized the Consumer Financial", "paragraph_id": "para_237" }, { "text": "Protection Bureau’s power to seek civil “monetary penalties” as a “quintessentially", "paragraph_id": "para_238" }, { "text": "executive power not considered in Humphrey’s Executor.” Seila Law, 591 U.S. at 219.", "paragraph_id": "para_239" }, { "text": "But the Commission’s authority to seek such penalties is far less “daunting” than the", "paragraph_id": "para_240" }, { "text": "Bureau’s. Id.", "paragraph_id": "para_241" }, { "text": "Unlike the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which—when Seila Law was", "paragraph_id": "para_242" }, { "text": "decided—could impose monetary penalties of its own accord in administrative", "paragraph_id": "para_243" }, { "text": "proceedings as well as seek them in court actions, the Commission can seek such", "paragraph_id": "para_244" }, { "text": "penalties only in court. Compare 12 U.S.C. §§ 5564(a), 5565(a)(1)–(2) (authorizing the", "paragraph_id": "para_245" }, { "text": "Bureau to obtain monetary penalties in judicial and administrative proceedings), with 15", "paragraph_id": "para_246" }, { "text": "U.S.C. §§ 45(l)–(m)(1), 1681s(a)(2) (authorizing the Commission to seek monetary", "paragraph_id": "para_247" }, { "text": "penalties only in court). But see SEC v. Jarkesy, 603 U.S. 109, 115, 125 (2024)", "paragraph_id": "para_248" }, { "text": "(holding, post-Seila Law, that the Seventh Amendment does not permit the SEC to", "paragraph_id": "para_249" }, { "text": "compel individuals to defend against civil-penalty actions in administrative proceedings,", "paragraph_id": "para_250" }, { "text": "rather than before juries in federal court).", "paragraph_id": "para_251" }, { "text": "Once the Commission elects to pursue a civil action to collect monetary", "paragraph_id": "para_252" }, { "text": "penalties, it again faces procedural constraints that the Consumer Financial Protection", "paragraph_id": "para_253" }, { "text": "Bureau does not. The Commission can “commenc[e] * * * an action to collect a civil", "paragraph_id": "para_254" }, { "text": "Page 7", "paragraph_id": "para_255" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_256" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_257" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_258" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_259" }, { "text": "penalty” only after notifying and consulting with the Department of Justice and only if the", "paragraph_id": "para_260" }, { "text": "Department declines to litigate the case itself. 15 U.S.C. § 56(a)(1); see also id.", "paragraph_id": "para_261" }, { "text": "§ 56(a)(2) (permitting the Commission to bypass the Department of Justice in certain", "paragraph_id": "para_262" }, { "text": "cases not involving monetary penalties). The Bureau, by contrast, need only notify and", "paragraph_id": "para_263" }, { "text": "consult the Department. 12 U.S.C. § 5564(a), (d).", "paragraph_id": "para_264" }, { "text": "Even in court, the Commission’s substantive authority to seek monetary penalties", "paragraph_id": "para_265" }, { "text": "pales in comparison to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s. Under the", "paragraph_id": "para_266" }, { "text": "Bureau’s organic statute, “[a]ny person that violates, through any act or omission, any", "paragraph_id": "para_267" }, { "text": "provision of Federal consumer financial law shall forfeit and pay a civil penalty[.]” 12", "paragraph_id": "para_268" }, { "text": "U.S.C. § 5565(c)(1) (emphases added). By contrast, and as the Supreme Court", "paragraph_id": "para_269" }, { "text": "unanimously recognized just four years ago, Congress has authorized the Commission", "paragraph_id": "para_270" }, { "text": "to pursue only “conditioned and limited monetary relief[.]” AMG Cap. Mgmt., LLC v.", "paragraph_id": "para_271" }, { "text": "Federal Trade Comm’n, 593 U.S. 67, 77 (2021). The Commission may seek monetary", "paragraph_id": "para_272" }, { "text": "penalties only against a party who violates a cease-and-desist order issued against it,", "paragraph_id": "para_273" }, { "text": "see 15 U.S.C. § 45(l); or who knowingly violates a Commission rule, a cease-and-desist", "paragraph_id": "para_274" }, { "text": "order issued against others, or the Fair Credit Reporting Act, see id. §§ 45(m)(1)(A)", "paragraph_id": "para_275" }, { "text": "(requiring “actual” or “fairly implied” knowledge that an action “is prohibited” by a rule),", "paragraph_id": "para_276" }, { "text": "45(m)(1)(B) (requiring “actual knowledge” that a violation of a cease-and-desist order “is", "paragraph_id": "para_277" }, { "text": "unlawful”), 1681s(a)(2)(A) (requiring “a knowing violation” of the Fair Credit Reporting", "paragraph_id": "para_278" }, { "text": "Act). In short, the Commission’s authority to seek civil penalties is closely", "paragraph_id": "para_279" }, { "text": "circumscribed. Cf. AMG Cap. Mgmt., 593 U.S. at 82 (inviting the Commission to “ask", "paragraph_id": "para_280" }, { "text": "Congress to grant it further remedial authority” if it believes its existing power to secure", "paragraph_id": "para_281" }, { "text": "monetary relief is “too cumbersome or otherwise inadequate”).", "paragraph_id": "para_282" }, { "text": "Finally, that some of the Commission’s authority, like the power to prosecute or", "paragraph_id": "para_283" }, { "text": "seek monetary penalties subject to circumscribed procedures, might be classified as", "paragraph_id": "para_284" }, { "text": "“executive,” does not render the Commissioners’ removal protection unconstitutional. In", "paragraph_id": "para_285" }, { "text": "Morrison, which was decided after Congress granted the Commission the power to", "paragraph_id": "para_286" }, { "text": "pursue monetary penalties, the Supreme Court recognized that the “powers of the FTC", "paragraph_id": "para_287" }, { "text": "at the time of Humphrey’s Executor would at the present time be considered ‘executive,’", "paragraph_id": "para_288" }, { "text": "at least to some degree[,]” 487 U.S. at 689 n.28, yet left Humphrey’s Executor intact. In", "paragraph_id": "para_289" }, { "text": "the wake of Morrison, the Court has continued to assure that Humphrey’s Executor", "paragraph_id": "para_290" }, { "text": "remains in place despite the fact that the Federal Trade Commission exercises the very", "paragraph_id": "para_291" }, { "text": "executive powers cited by the government here, including the ability for the last half", "paragraph_id": "para_292" }, { "text": "century to seek monetary penalties. See Magnuson-Moss Act, Pub. L. No. 93-637,", "paragraph_id": "para_293" }, { "text": "§ 205(a), 88 Stat. 2183, 2200–2201 (1975) (giving the Commission the authority to", "paragraph_id": "para_294" }, { "text": "“commence a civil action to recover a civil penalty”). Compare Seila Law, 591 U.S. at", "paragraph_id": "para_295" }, { "text": "Page 8", "paragraph_id": "para_296" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_297" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_298" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_299" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_300" }, { "text": "228 (“not revisit[ing] Humphrey’s Executor”), with id. at 286 (Kagan, J., concurring in the", "paragraph_id": "para_301" }, { "text": "judgment with respect to severability and dissenting in part) (noting that the Federal", "paragraph_id": "para_302" }, { "text": "Trade Commission, along with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “can issue", "paragraph_id": "para_303" }, { "text": "regulations, conduct its own adjudications, and bring civil enforcement actions in", "paragraph_id": "para_304" }, { "text": "court—all backed by the threat of penalties”); compare Collins, 594 U.S. 220, 250–251", "paragraph_id": "para_305" }, { "text": "(2021) (recognizing that Seila Law did “not revisit [] prior decisions”) (quoting Seila Law,", "paragraph_id": "para_306" }, { "text": "591 U.S. at 204), with id. at 285 (Sotomayor, J., concurring in part and dissenting in", "paragraph_id": "para_307" }, { "text": "part) (noting that the Federal Housing Finance Agency may initiate administrative", "paragraph_id": "para_308" }, { "text": "proceedings, issue subpoenas, and impose monetary penalties); see generally Free", "paragraph_id": "para_309" }, { "text": "Enter. Fund, 561 U.S. at 483 (in case involving multimember board, declining to", "paragraph_id": "para_310" }, { "text": "“reexamine” Humphrey’s Executor).", "paragraph_id": "para_311" }, { "text": "Those repeated decisions of the Supreme Court to preserve Humphrey’s", "paragraph_id": "para_312" }, { "text": "Executor with full knowledge of the executive powers exercised by the", "paragraph_id": "para_313" }, { "text": "Commission—the same ones relied on by the government here as purported grounds", "paragraph_id": "para_314" }, { "text": "for discarding precedent—control this court’s decisionmaking. For when a precedent of", "paragraph_id": "para_315" }, { "text": "the Supreme Court “has direct application in a case,” as Humphrey’s Executor does", "paragraph_id": "para_316" }, { "text": "here, “the Court of Appeals should follow the case which directly controls, leaving to [the", "paragraph_id": "para_317" }, { "text": "Supreme] Court the prerogative of overruling its own decisions.” Rodriguez de Quijas v.", "paragraph_id": "para_318" }, { "text": "Shearson/American Express, Inc., 490 U.S. 477, 484 (1989). A lower court is bound by", "paragraph_id": "para_319" }, { "text": "that rule “even if the lower court thinks the precedent is in tension with ‘some other line", "paragraph_id": "para_320" }, { "text": "of decisions’” or that “intervening decisions from [the Supreme] Court had ‘implicitly", "paragraph_id": "para_321" }, { "text": "overruled’ [the precedent.]” Mallory v. Norfolk S. Ry. Co., 600 U.S. 122, 136 (2023)", "paragraph_id": "para_322" }, { "text": "(quoting Rodriguez de Quijas, 490 U.S. at 484); see also Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_323" }, { "text": "203, 237 (1997) (“We do not acknowledge, and we do not hold, that other courts should", "paragraph_id": "para_324" }, { "text": "conclude our more recent cases have, by implication, overruled an earlier precedent.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_325" }, { "text": "The Fifth Circuit has faithfully hewed to this rule with respect to the very", "paragraph_id": "para_326" }, { "text": "precedent at issue here—Humphrey’s Executor. Illumina, Inc. v. Federal Trade", "paragraph_id": "para_327" }, { "text": "Comm’n, 88 F.4th 1036, 1047 (5th Cir. 2023) (“[A]lthough the FTC’s powers may have", "paragraph_id": "para_328" }, { "text": "changed since Humphrey’s Executor was decided, the question of whether the FTC’s", "paragraph_id": "para_329" }, { "text": "authority has changed so fundamentally as to render Humphrey’s Executor no longer", "paragraph_id": "para_330" }, { "text": "binding is for the Supreme Court, not us, to answer.”). This court likewise has", "paragraph_id": "para_331" }, { "text": "repeatedly acknowledged that its role is to apply Supreme Court precedent, not to", "paragraph_id": "para_332" }, { "text": "declare its overruling. See National Security Archive v. CIA, 104 F.4th 267, 272 n.1", "paragraph_id": "para_333" }, { "text": "(D.C. Cir. 2024) (“This Court is charged with following case law that directly controls a", "paragraph_id": "para_334" }, { "text": "particular issue[.]”); Shea v. Kerry, 796 F.3d 42, 54 (D.C. Cir. 2015) (quoting Agostini,", "paragraph_id": "para_335" }, { "text": "521 U.S. at 237); Sierra Club v. EPA, 322 F.3d 718, 725 (D.C. Cir. 2003) (quoting", "paragraph_id": "para_336" }, { "text": "Page 9", "paragraph_id": "para_337" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_338" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_339" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_340" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_341" }, { "text": "Rodriquez de Quijas, 490 U.S. at 484); see generally Sherman v. Community Consol.", "paragraph_id": "para_342" }, { "text": "Sch. Dist. 21 of Wheeling Township, 980 F.2d 437, 448 (7th Cir. 1992) (Easterbrook, J.)", "paragraph_id": "para_343" }, { "text": "(When the Supreme Court makes and expressly preserves precedent, “we take its", "paragraph_id": "para_344" }, { "text": "assurances seriously. If the Justices [were] just pulling our leg, let them say so.”).1", "paragraph_id": "para_345" }, { "text": "2", "paragraph_id": "para_346" }, { "text": "Next, the government argues that recent Supreme Court stay orders override", "paragraph_id": "para_347", "court_paragraph": 2 }, { "text": "Humphrey’s Executor as to an application for a stay. Gov’t Stay Mot. 15; Gov’t Reply", "paragraph_id": "para_348" }, { "text": "3–4, 6.", "paragraph_id": "para_349" }, { "text": "The present case, however, differs in material respects from recent removal", "paragraph_id": "para_350" }, { "text": "cases in which the Supreme Court has granted the government’s request for a stay.", "paragraph_id": "para_351" }, { "text": "See Trump v. Wilcox, 605 U.S. ___, 145 S. Ct. 1415 (2025); Trump v. Boyle, 605 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_352" }, { "text": "___, No. 25A11, slip op. (U.S. July 23, 2025). In those cases, an extension of", "paragraph_id": "para_353" }, { "text": "Humphrey’s Executor to a new context would have been required for the removed", "paragraph_id": "para_354" }, { "text": "officials to prevail on the merits. In contrast, the present case involves the exact same", "paragraph_id": "para_355" }, { "text": "agency, the exact same removal provision, and the same exercises of executive power", "paragraph_id": "para_356" }, { "text": "already addressed by the Supreme Court in Humphrey’s Executor and subsequent", "paragraph_id": "para_357" }, { "text": "decisions, and so is squarely controlled by that precedent.", "paragraph_id": "para_358" }, { "text": "1 The government also argues it is likely to succeed on the merits because the", "paragraph_id": "para_359" }, { "text": "district court lacked the authority to reinstate Ms. Slaughter. Gov’t Stay Mot. 18–23.", "paragraph_id": "para_360" }, { "text": "This court sitting en banc has already found the government unlikely to succeed on that", "paragraph_id": "para_361" }, { "text": "very same argument. See Harris v. Bessent, No. 25-5037, 2025 WL 1021435, at *2", "paragraph_id": "para_362" }, { "text": "(D.C. Cir. Apr. 7, 2025) (en banc) (per curiam) (“The government likewise has not", "paragraph_id": "para_363" }, { "text": "shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits of its claim that there is no available", "paragraph_id": "para_364" }, { "text": "remedy for Harris or Wilcox, or that allowing the district court’s injunctions to remain in", "paragraph_id": "para_365" }, { "text": "place pending appeal is impermissible.”); see also Aviel v. Gor, No. 25-5105, 2025 WL", "paragraph_id": "para_366" }, { "text": "1600446, at *2 (D.C. Cir. June 5, 2025) (Pillard and Katsas, JJ., concurring) (“[I]t seems", "paragraph_id": "para_367" }, { "text": "appropriate to defer to the views expressed by our en banc Court in denying a stay", "paragraph_id": "para_368" }, { "text": "pending appeal in Harris, which found the government unlikely to succeed in its", "paragraph_id": "para_369" }, { "text": "contention that reinstatement is rarely if ever an available remedy for unlawfully", "paragraph_id": "para_370" }, { "text": "removed officials.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_371" }, { "text": "Page 10", "paragraph_id": "para_372" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_373" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_374" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_375" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_376" }, { "text": "As a result, to conclude that the government has any prospect for success on", "paragraph_id": "para_377" }, { "text": "appeal would require this court to declare Supreme Court precedent moribund even", "paragraph_id": "para_378" }, { "text": "when the Supreme Court has expressly preserved it. That is something this court may", "paragraph_id": "para_379" }, { "text": "not do. See Mallory, 600 U.S. at 136; Rodriguez de Quijas, 490 U.S. at 484.", "paragraph_id": "para_380" }, { "text": "In Wilcox and Boyle, the government applied for stays of orders from district", "paragraph_id": "para_381" }, { "text": "courts enjoining the President’s removal of a member of the National Labor Relations", "paragraph_id": "para_382" }, { "text": "Board (NLRB), a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and members", "paragraph_id": "para_383" }, { "text": "of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Each of those cases presented", "paragraph_id": "para_384" }, { "text": "the never-before-decided question of whether Humphrey’s Executor should be extended", "paragraph_id": "para_385" }, { "text": "to the statutes providing for-cause removal protection to those officials.", "paragraph_id": "para_386" }, { "text": "In granting a stay, the Supreme Court determined that the government was", "paragraph_id": "para_387" }, { "text": "“likely to show” that the NLRB, MSPB, and CPSC each exercised “considerable", "paragraph_id": "para_388" }, { "text": "executive power[.]” See Wilcox, 145 S. Ct. at 1415 (“[T]he Government is likely to show", "paragraph_id": "para_389" }, { "text": "that both the NLRB and MSPB exercise considerable executive power.”); see Boyle, slip", "paragraph_id": "para_390" }, { "text": "op. at 1 (“[T]he Consumer Product Safety Commission exercises executive power in a", "paragraph_id": "para_391" }, { "text": "similar manner as the National Labor Relations Board, and the case does not otherwise", "paragraph_id": "para_392" }, { "text": "differ from Wilcox in any pertinent respect.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_393" }, { "text": "Critically, the Supreme Court’s stay order in Wilcox expressly reaffirmed that the", "paragraph_id": "para_394" }, { "text": "President’s removal authority remains “subject to narrow exceptions recognized by our", "paragraph_id": "para_395" }, { "text": "precedents.” Wilcox, 145 S. Ct. at 1415. The order then cites the portion of Seila Law", "paragraph_id": "para_396" }, { "text": "that discusses how one of those “exceptions” is the Court’s decision in Humphrey’s", "paragraph_id": "para_397" }, { "text": "Executor to uphold for-cause removal protection for the Members of the Federal Trade", "paragraph_id": "para_398" }, { "text": "Commission. Id. (citing Seila Law, 591 U.S. at 215!218).", "paragraph_id": "para_399" }, { "text": "Granting the government’s motion would ignore the Supreme Court’s stay order", "paragraph_id": "para_400" }, { "text": "in Wilcox, not comply with it. That order said, less than three months ago, that stay", "paragraph_id": "para_401" }, { "text": "decisions by the courts of appeals remain controlled by extant precedent including", "paragraph_id": "para_402" }, { "text": "Humphrey’s Executor. Wilcox, 145 S. Ct. at 1415.", "paragraph_id": "para_403" }, { "text": "Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence in the Boyle stay order reconfirmed this point,", "paragraph_id": "para_404" }, { "text": "reasoning that “[w]hen the question is whether to narrow or overrule one of this Court’s", "paragraph_id": "para_405" }, { "text": "precedents rather than how to resolve an open or disputed question of federal law, * * *", "paragraph_id": "para_406" }, { "text": "lower courts cannot alter or overrule this Court’s precedents.” Boyle, slip op. at 2", "paragraph_id": "para_407" }, { "text": "(Kavanaugh, J., concurring in the grant of the application for stay) (emphases added).", "paragraph_id": "para_408" }, { "text": "Page 11", "paragraph_id": "para_409" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_410" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_411" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_412" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_413" }, { "text": "* * *", "paragraph_id": "para_414" }, { "text": "All of that is a long way of saying that the government is not likely to succeed on", "paragraph_id": "para_415" }, { "text": "the merits of its appeal because Supreme Court precedent expressly recognizes the", "paragraph_id": "para_416" }, { "text": "constitutionality of 15 U.S.C. § 41’s removal protections, and all of the government’s", "paragraph_id": "para_417" }, { "text": "counter arguments disregard not just Humphrey’s Executor, but also recent Supreme", "paragraph_id": "para_418" }, { "text": "Court decisions preserving that precedent and the Wilcox stay order’s admonition that", "paragraph_id": "para_419" }, { "text": "removal protections already upheld by the Supreme Court remain in full effect unless", "paragraph_id": "para_420" }, { "text": "and until the Supreme Court says otherwise.", "paragraph_id": "para_421" }, { "text": "III", "paragraph_id": "para_422" }, { "text": "As for the remaining stay factors, the Supreme Court’s stay orders in Wilcox and", "paragraph_id": "para_423" }, { "text": "Boyle teach that the balance of equities in removal cases not governed by on-point", "paragraph_id": "para_424" }, { "text": "Supreme Court precedent generally favors the government. See Wilcox, 145 S. Ct. at", "paragraph_id": "para_425" }, { "text": "1415 (“The stay * * * reflects our judgment that the Government faces greater risk of", "paragraph_id": "para_426" }, { "text": "harm from an order allowing a removed officer to continue exercising the executive", "paragraph_id": "para_427" }, { "text": "power than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable to perform her", "paragraph_id": "para_428" }, { "text": "statutory duty.”); Boyle, slip op. at 1 (same).", "paragraph_id": "para_429" }, { "text": "But the equitable calculus in this case differs in relevant respects.", "paragraph_id": "para_430" }, { "text": "First, the Supreme Court has not applied that harm determination to a case", "paragraph_id": "para_431" }, { "text": "where binding Supreme Court precedent establishes the wrongfulness of the removal.", "paragraph_id": "para_432" }, { "text": "Second, Ms. Slaughter is the sole remaining Democrat on a Commission with a", "paragraph_id": "para_433" }, { "text": "governing majority of three Republicans. Gov’t Stay Mot. 4–5; Slaughter Opp. 20. In", "paragraph_id": "para_434" }, { "text": "Wilcox, Grundmann v. Trump, and Boyle, the government articulated a concern that the", "paragraph_id": "para_435" }, { "text": "reinstatement of the removed officers could affect the agency’s composition in a way", "paragraph_id": "para_436" }, { "text": "that would empower it to take meaningful regulatory actions that conflict with the", "paragraph_id": "para_437" }, { "text": "President’s agenda. See, e.g., App. to Stay at 33, Trump v. Wilcox, No. 24A966, 145 S.", "paragraph_id": "para_438" }, { "text": "Ct. 141 (2025), 2025 WL 1101716, at *33; Grundmann v. Trump, No. CV 25-425, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_439" }, { "text": "WL 1671173, at *3–4 (D.D.C. June 13, 2025); App. to Stay at 1–3, Trump v. Boyle, No.", "paragraph_id": "para_440" }, { "text": "25A11, 606 U.S. ___ (2025), 2025 WL 1867283, at *1–3. That concern does not apply", "paragraph_id": "para_441" }, { "text": "here because, given the Commission’s composition, there is no reasonable prospect", "paragraph_id": "para_442" }, { "text": "that returning Ms. Slaughter to her position will result in any meaningful regulatory", "paragraph_id": "para_443" }, { "text": "action opposed by the Commission majority. See Slaughter Opp. 20–22.", "paragraph_id": "para_444" }, { "text": "Page 12", "paragraph_id": "para_445" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_446" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_447" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_448" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_449" }, { "text": "Third, individual Commissioners wield no unilateral authority. Instead, the", "paragraph_id": "para_450" }, { "text": "Commission functions as a collegial body, and every significant action requires at least a", "paragraph_id": "para_451" }, { "text": "majority vote of a quorum of Commissioners: issuance of legal process, see 16 C.F.R.", "paragraph_id": "para_452" }, { "text": "§ 2.7(a); initiation of enforcement proceedings, see id. § 2.13(a); and even rulings on", "paragraph_id": "para_453" }, { "text": "petitions, see id. § 2.10(c); see also id. § 4.14(c).2", "paragraph_id": "para_454" }, { "text": "Finally, the public interest favors denying the government’s application. There is", "paragraph_id": "para_455" }, { "text": "a substantial public interest in having lower courts stay in their lane and leave to the", "paragraph_id": "para_456" }, { "text": "Supreme Court “the prerogative of overruling its own decisions.” Rodriguez de Quijas,", "paragraph_id": "para_457" }, { "text": "490 U.S. at 484. That rule ensures stability and consistency in the law. See Hilton v.", "paragraph_id": "para_458" }, { "text": "South Carolina Pub. Rys. Comm’n, 502 U.S. 197, 202 (1991) (“Adherence to precedent", "paragraph_id": "para_459" }, { "text": "promotes stability, predictability, and respect for judicial authority.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_460" }, { "text": "* * * * *", "paragraph_id": "para_461" }, { "text": "2 By regulation, if the Commission passes a resolution authorizing the use of", "paragraph_id": "para_462" }, { "text": "compulsory process, then individual commissioners are authorized to issue civil", "paragraph_id": "para_463" }, { "text": "investigative demands and subpoenas. 16 C.F.R. § 2.7(a). The Commission has", "paragraph_id": "para_464" }, { "text": "adopted several such resolutions in recent years. See, e.g., Federal Trade Commission,", "paragraph_id": "para_465" }, { "text": "Resolution Directing Use of Compulsory Process Regarding Acts or Practices Related", "paragraph_id": "para_466" }, { "text": "to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (July 1, 2021), https://perma.cc/YG96-P458;", "paragraph_id": "para_467" }, { "text": "Federal Trade Commission, Resolution Directing Use of Compulsory Process", "paragraph_id": "para_468" }, { "text": "Regarding Consummated Merger and Acquisition Investigations (July 1, 2021),", "paragraph_id": "para_469" }, { "text": "https://perma.cc/5XXS-FK97. But individual Commissioners have no power to compel", "paragraph_id": "para_470" }, { "text": "enforcement of those investigative demands or subpoenas. Enforcement may be", "paragraph_id": "para_471" }, { "text": "initiated only by the Commission or the Attorney General, and only the Commission can", "paragraph_id": "para_472" }, { "text": "rule on petitions to limit or quash compulsory process. 16 C.F.R. §§ 2.10(c), 2.13(a). In", "paragraph_id": "para_473" }, { "text": "addition, if Ms. Slaughter were reinstated, the Commission could withdraw the", "paragraph_id": "para_474" }, { "text": "resolutions authorizing the use of compulsory process. See Remarks of Chair Lina M.", "paragraph_id": "para_475" }, { "text": "Khan on the Investigatory Resolutions (July 1, 2021) (“The resolutions provide for", "paragraph_id": "para_476" }, { "text": "compulsory process authorization in these areas for 10 years, unless rescinded by the", "paragraph_id": "para_477" }, { "text": "Commission at an earlier point.”), https://perma.cc/YCX5-8BKG.", "paragraph_id": "para_478" }, { "text": "Page 13", "paragraph_id": "para_479" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_480" }, { "text": "FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT", "paragraph_id": "para_481" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_482" }, { "text": "No. 25-5261 September Term, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_483" }, { "text": "For the foregoing reasons, the government’s motion for a stay pending appeal is", "paragraph_id": "para_484" }, { "text": "denied.", "paragraph_id": "para_485" }, { "text": "Per Curiam", "paragraph_id": "para_486" }, { "text": "FOR THE COURT:", "paragraph_id": "para_487" }, { "text": "Clifton B. Cislak, Clerk", "paragraph_id": "para_488" }, { "text": "BY: /s/", "paragraph_id": "para_489" }, { "text": "Selena R. Gancasz", "paragraph_id": "para_490" }, { "text": "Deputy Clerk", "paragraph_id": "para_491" }, { "text": "Page 14", "paragraph_id": "para_492" }, { "text": "RAO, Circuit Judge, dissenting: This case presents a now-", "paragraph_id": "para_493" }, { "text": "familiar set of facts. President Donald Trump fired a", "paragraph_id": "para_494" }, { "text": "commissioner of a so-called independent agency without", "paragraph_id": "para_495" }, { "text": "cause. The district court held that such removal was unlawful,", "paragraph_id": "para_496" }, { "text": "ordered reinstatement of the officer, and entered a sweeping", "paragraph_id": "para_497" }, { "text": "permanent injunction that, among other things, ordered", "paragraph_id": "para_498" }, { "text": "everyone at the agency to treat the officer as if she were never", "paragraph_id": "para_499" }, { "text": "removed by the President. In two virtually identical cases, the", "paragraph_id": "para_500" }, { "text": "Supreme Court has stayed similar injunctions.", "paragraph_id": "para_501" }, { "text": "While it is true the removed officer here is a commissioner", "paragraph_id": "para_502" }, { "text": "of the Federal Trade Commission, and the Supreme Court", "paragraph_id": "para_503" }, { "text": "upheld the removal restriction for such commissioners in", "paragraph_id": "para_504" }, { "text": "Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), a", "paragraph_id": "para_505" }, { "text": "stay is nonetheless appropriate. The Commission", "paragraph_id": "para_506" }, { "text": "unquestionably exercises significant executive power, and the", "paragraph_id": "para_507" }, { "text": "other equities favor the government. These grounds were", "paragraph_id": "para_508" }, { "text": "sufficient to support the Supreme Court’s judgment that a stay", "paragraph_id": "para_509" }, { "text": "was warranted in two recent cases in which the district court", "paragraph_id": "para_510" }, { "text": "ordered reinstatement of an officer removed by the President.", "paragraph_id": "para_511" }, { "text": "The Court determined that “the Government faces greater risk", "paragraph_id": "para_512" }, { "text": "of harm from an order allowing a removed officer to continue", "paragraph_id": "para_513" }, { "text": "exercising the executive power than a wrongfully removed", "paragraph_id": "para_514" }, { "text": "officer faces from being unable to perform her statutory duty.”", "paragraph_id": "para_515" }, { "text": "Trump v. Wilcox, 145 S. Ct. 1415, 1415 (2025); see also Trump", "paragraph_id": "para_516" }, { "text": "v. Boyle, 145 S. Ct. 2653, 2654 (2025). Because we are", "paragraph_id": "para_517" }, { "text": "required to exercise our equitable discretion in accordance with", "paragraph_id": "para_518" }, { "text": "the Court’s directives, the district court’s order must be stayed.", "paragraph_id": "para_519" }, { "text": "I respectfully dissent.", "paragraph_id": "para_520" }, { "text": "I.", "paragraph_id": "para_521" }, { "text": "The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) is led by five", "paragraph_id": "para_522" }, { "text": "commissioners appointed by the President with the advice and", "paragraph_id": "para_523" }, { "text": "consent of the Senate. 15 U.S.C. § 41. Commissioners “may be", "paragraph_id": "para_524" }, { "text": "removed by the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or", "paragraph_id": "para_525" }, { "text": "malfeasance in office.” Id. As relevant here, President Trump", "paragraph_id": "para_526" }, { "text": "2", "paragraph_id": "para_527" }, { "text": "removed FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, explaining", "paragraph_id": "para_528", "court_paragraph": 2 }, { "text": "that her continued service would be “inconsistent with [the]", "paragraph_id": "para_529" }, { "text": "Administration’s priorities.”1 Slaughter v. Trump, No. 25-cv-", "paragraph_id": "para_530" }, { "text": "909, 2025 WL 1984396, at *2 (D.D.C. July 17, 2025).", "paragraph_id": "para_531" }, { "text": "Slaughter sued the President and the three remaining FTC", "paragraph_id": "para_532" }, { "text": "Commissioners, arguing that her removal was unlawful", "paragraph_id": "para_533" }, { "text": "because the President did not offer any statutory cause for", "paragraph_id": "para_534" }, { "text": "removing her. See id. at *3. The district court granted summary", "paragraph_id": "para_535" }, { "text": "judgment to Slaughter and declared that her removal was", "paragraph_id": "para_536" }, { "text": "unlawful and that she “remains a rightful member of the", "paragraph_id": "para_537" }, { "text": "[FTC].” Order at 1, Slaughter v. Trump, No. 25-cv-909, Dkt.", "paragraph_id": "para_538" }, { "text": "No. 52 (D.D.C. July 17, 2025). The district court also entered", "paragraph_id": "para_539" }, { "text": "a permanent injunction against the three remaining FTC", "paragraph_id": "para_540" }, { "text": "Commissioners “and their subordinates and agents,” ordering", "paragraph_id": "para_541" }, { "text": "them not to “remov[e] Ms. Slaughter from her lawful position", "paragraph_id": "para_542" }, { "text": "as an FTC Commissioner or otherwise interfer[e] with Ms.", "paragraph_id": "para_543" }, { "text": "Slaughter’s right to perform her lawful duties as an FTC", "paragraph_id": "para_544" }, { "text": "Commissioner.” Id. at 2. The government moved for a stay", "paragraph_id": "para_545" }, { "text": "pending appeal.", "paragraph_id": "para_546" }, { "text": "II.", "paragraph_id": "para_547" }, { "text": "I would grant the government’s motion for a stay because", "paragraph_id": "para_548" }, { "text": "the government is likely to prevail on the merits of its", "paragraph_id": "para_549" }, { "text": "challenge, and the Supreme Court has reaffirmed that when a", "paragraph_id": "para_550" }, { "text": "court orders reinstatement of an officer removed by the", "paragraph_id": "para_551" }, { "text": "President, the balance of harms favors the government and", "paragraph_id": "para_552" }, { "text": "warrants a stay. See Wilcox, 145 S. Ct. at 1415; Boyle, 145", "paragraph_id": "para_553" }, { "text": "1 The President also removed FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya,", "paragraph_id": "para_554" }, { "text": "likewise citing Administration priorities. Bedoya challenged his", "paragraph_id": "para_555" }, { "text": "removal, but his claims were dismissed as moot after he “resigned”", "paragraph_id": "para_556" }, { "text": "from the FTC.", "paragraph_id": "para_557" }, { "text": "3", "paragraph_id": "para_558" }, { "text": "S. Ct. at 2654; see also Nken v. Holder, 556 U.S. 418, 434", "paragraph_id": "para_559", "court_paragraph": 3 }, { "text": "(2009) (outlining the four stay factors).", "paragraph_id": "para_560" }, { "text": "A.", "paragraph_id": "para_561" }, { "text": "Even recognizing that Humphrey’s Executor remains", "paragraph_id": "para_562" }, { "text": "binding on this court, the government is likely to succeed in its", "paragraph_id": "para_563" }, { "text": "challenge to the district court’s remarkable injunction. First, the", "paragraph_id": "para_564" }, { "text": "district court’s purported reinstatement of a removed Executive", "paragraph_id": "para_565" }, { "text": "Branch officer exceeds the traditional equitable powers of an", "paragraph_id": "para_566" }, { "text": "Article III court. Second, the district court clearly erred in its", "paragraph_id": "para_567" }, { "text": "conclusion that Slaughter is irreparably harmed by her", "paragraph_id": "para_568" }, { "text": "removal. And finally, we need not definitively determine", "paragraph_id": "para_569" }, { "text": "whether Slaughter’s removal was lawful, because we must", "paragraph_id": "para_570" }, { "text": "follow the Supreme Court’s conclusion that an injunction", "paragraph_id": "para_571" }, { "text": "reinstating an officer the President has removed harms the", "paragraph_id": "para_572" }, { "text": "government by intruding on the President’s power and", "paragraph_id": "para_573" }, { "text": "responsibility over the Executive Branch.", "paragraph_id": "para_574" }, { "text": "1.", "paragraph_id": "para_575" }, { "text": "Even assuming that Slaughter’s removal was unlawful, the", "paragraph_id": "para_576" }, { "text": "district court nonetheless lacked the power to issue the", "paragraph_id": "para_577" }, { "text": "injunction. The district court purported to order the", "paragraph_id": "para_578" }, { "text": "reinstatement of Slaughter and to bar the other FTC", "paragraph_id": "para_579" }, { "text": "Commissioners from removing her from office or interfering", "paragraph_id": "para_580" }, { "text": "with her “right to perform her lawful duties as an FTC", "paragraph_id": "para_581" }, { "text": "Commissioner.” Order at 2, Slaughter, Dkt. No. 52. Such", "paragraph_id": "para_582" }, { "text": "injunctive relief is unprecedented and creates a direct", "paragraph_id": "para_583" }, { "text": "confrontation with the President over his core Article II", "paragraph_id": "para_584" }, { "text": "powers. See Aviel v. Gor, No. 25-5105, 2025 WL 1600446, at", "paragraph_id": "para_585" }, { "text": "*5–6 (D.C. Cir. June 5, 2025) (Rao, J., dissenting).", "paragraph_id": "para_586" }, { "text": "To begin with, the injunction interferes with the", "paragraph_id": "para_587" }, { "text": "President’s exclusive powers. The district court nominally", "paragraph_id": "para_588" }, { "text": "ordered the remaining FTC Commissioners and their", "paragraph_id": "para_589" }, { "text": "4", "paragraph_id": "para_590" }, { "text": "subordinates and agents not to remove Slaughter, but these", "paragraph_id": "para_591", "court_paragraph": 4 }, { "text": "officials have no power to remove her. By statute, only the", "paragraph_id": "para_592" }, { "text": "President may remove an FTC commissioner. See 15 U.S.C.", "paragraph_id": "para_593" }, { "text": "§ 41. The district court employs a toothless remedial fiction", "paragraph_id": "para_594" }, { "text": "because it cannot enjoin removal by the President.2", "paragraph_id": "para_595" }, { "text": "More to the point, by ordering the remaining FTC", "paragraph_id": "para_596" }, { "text": "Commissioners and their subordinates to treat Slaughter as", "paragraph_id": "para_597" }, { "text": "though she is still in office, the district court expressly orders", "paragraph_id": "para_598" }, { "text": "them to disregard the President’s directive. Although the", "paragraph_id": "para_599" }, { "text": "district court refrained from enjoining the President explicitly,", "paragraph_id": "para_600" }, { "text": "the injunction attempts to countermand the President’s removal", "paragraph_id": "para_601" }, { "text": "by ordering the remaining Commissioners to ignore and to act", "paragraph_id": "para_602" }, { "text": "contrary to the President’s removal of Slaughter.3 The", "paragraph_id": "para_603" }, { "text": "2 The district court cannot directly enjoin the President in “the", "paragraph_id": "para_604" }, { "text": "performance of his official duties.” Mississippi v. Johnson, 71 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_605" }, { "text": "(4 Wall.) 475, 501 (1867). “[I]mplicit in the separation of powers", "paragraph_id": "para_606" }, { "text": "established by the Constitution” is the idea that “the principals in", "paragraph_id": "para_607" }, { "text": "whom the executive and legislative powers are ultimately vested—", "paragraph_id": "para_608" }, { "text": "viz., the President and the Congress (as opposed to their agents)—", "paragraph_id": "para_609" }, { "text": "may not be ordered to perform particular executive or legislative acts", "paragraph_id": "para_610" }, { "text": "at the behest of the Judiciary.” Franklin v. Massachusetts, 505 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_611" }, { "text": "788, 827 (1992) (Scalia, J., concurring in part and concurring in the", "paragraph_id": "para_612" }, { "text": "judgment). While courts may have a limited ability to enjoin the", "paragraph_id": "para_613" }, { "text": "President to carry out ministerial, nondiscretionary duties, “the", "paragraph_id": "para_614" }, { "text": "President’s exercise of his appointment and removal authority, core", "paragraph_id": "para_615" }, { "text": "Article II powers essential to his control and supervision of the", "paragraph_id": "para_616" }, { "text": "Executive Branch, can in no way be denominated as ministerial.”", "paragraph_id": "para_617" }, { "text": "Aviel, 2025 WL 1600446, at *5 (Rao, J., dissenting) (cleaned up).", "paragraph_id": "para_618" }, { "text": "3 The district court relied on our decisions in Swan v. Clinton and", "paragraph_id": "para_619" }, { "text": "Severino v. Biden to justify enjoining subordinate officials as a", "paragraph_id": "para_620" }, { "text": "workaround to an injunction against the President. Slaughter, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_621" }, { "text": "WL 1984396, at *17 (citing Swan v. Clinton, 100 F.3d 973, 980", "paragraph_id": "para_622" }, { "text": "(D.C. Cir. 1996), and Severino v. Biden, 71 F.4th 1038, 1042–43", "paragraph_id": "para_623" }, { "text": "(D.C. Cir. 2023)). Swan contemplated the potential availability of de", "paragraph_id": "para_624" }, { "text": "facto reinstatement through mandamus against subordinate", "paragraph_id": "para_625" }, { "text": "5", "paragraph_id": "para_626" }, { "text": "injunction directly interferes with the President’s supervision", "paragraph_id": "para_627", "court_paragraph": 5 }, { "text": "of the Executive Branch and therefore goes beyond the power", "paragraph_id": "para_628" }, { "text": "of the federal courts. See Mississippi v. Johnson, 71 U.S. (4", "paragraph_id": "para_629" }, { "text": "Wall.) 475, 501 (1867); Trump v. United States, 144 S. Ct.", "paragraph_id": "para_630" }, { "text": "2312, 2327 (2024) (“[T]he courts have no power to control the", "paragraph_id": "para_631" }, { "text": "President’s discretion when he acts pursuant to the powers", "paragraph_id": "para_632" }, { "text": "invested exclusively in him by the Constitution.”) (cleaned up).", "paragraph_id": "para_633" }, { "text": "Moreover, federal courts likely have no equitable authority", "paragraph_id": "para_634" }, { "text": "to order the reinstatement of an officer removed by the", "paragraph_id": "para_635" }, { "text": "President. The Article III courts may grant only those equitable", "paragraph_id": "para_636" }, { "text": "remedies “traditionally accorded by courts of equity.” Grupo", "paragraph_id": "para_637" }, { "text": "Mexicano de Desarrollo S.A. v. All. Bond Fund, Inc., 527 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_638" }, { "text": "308, 319 (1999). As a historical matter, it is “well settled that a", "paragraph_id": "para_639" }, { "text": "court of equity has no jurisdiction over the appointment and", "paragraph_id": "para_640" }, { "text": "removal of public officers.”4 In re Sawyer, 124 U.S. 200, 212", "paragraph_id": "para_641" }, { "text": "(1888); White v. Berry, 171 U.S. 366, 377 (1898); see also", "paragraph_id": "para_642" }, { "text": "Bessent v. Dellinger, 145 S. Ct. 515, 517 (2025) (Gorsuch, J.,", "paragraph_id": "para_643" }, { "text": "Executive Branch officials to satisfy the redressability prong of", "paragraph_id": "para_644" }, { "text": "standing. See 100 F.3d at 976–81; see also Severino, 71 F.4th at", "paragraph_id": "para_645" }, { "text": "1042–43 (following Swan’s redressability analysis). But this", "paragraph_id": "para_646" }, { "text": "extraordinary relief was never imposed because the court ruled", "paragraph_id": "para_647" }, { "text": "against the official on the merits. See Swan, 100 F.3d at 988. Read in", "paragraph_id": "para_648" }, { "text": "the context of longstanding Supreme Court precedent and the", "paragraph_id": "para_649" }, { "text": "Constitution’s separation of powers, these narrow decisions did not", "paragraph_id": "para_650" }, { "text": "create the remedial authority claimed by the district court.", "paragraph_id": "para_651" }, { "text": "4 My colleagues inexplicably stick to this court’s en banc decision in", "paragraph_id": "para_652" }, { "text": "Harris v. Bessent, which denied a motion to stay a similar", "paragraph_id": "para_653" }, { "text": "reinstatement injunction. Order at 10 n.1 (citing Harris v. Bessent,", "paragraph_id": "para_654" }, { "text": "No. 25-5037, 2025 WL 1021435, at *2 (D.C. Cir. Apr. 7, 2025) (en", "paragraph_id": "para_655" }, { "text": "banc) (per curiam)). But the en banc court was reversed by the", "paragraph_id": "para_656" }, { "text": "Supreme Court, which granted a stay of the injunction. Wilcox, 145", "paragraph_id": "para_657" }, { "text": "S. Ct. at 1415. I see no reason to follow overruled circuit precedent", "paragraph_id": "para_658" }, { "text": "rather than Wilcox and longstanding Supreme Court precedent.", "paragraph_id": "para_659" }, { "text": "6", "paragraph_id": "para_660" }, { "text": "dissenting). These limitations on the remedial powers of the", "paragraph_id": "para_661", "court_paragraph": 6 }, { "text": "Article III courts accord with our constitutional structure.", "paragraph_id": "para_662" }, { "text": "Executive officers challenging their removal by the", "paragraph_id": "para_663" }, { "text": "President have previously sought backpay, not reinstatement.", "paragraph_id": "para_664" }, { "text": "My colleagues discuss at great length the ongoing vitality of", "paragraph_id": "para_665" }, { "text": "Humphrey’s Executor, but the relief sought in that case was", "paragraph_id": "para_666" }, { "text": "only backpay. 295 U.S. at 618; see also Myers v. United States,", "paragraph_id": "para_667" }, { "text": "272 U.S. 52, 106 (1926). And neither the district court nor the", "paragraph_id": "para_668" }, { "text": "Order explains how the remedy of reinstatement is consistent", "paragraph_id": "para_669" }, { "text": "with Humphrey’s Executor or the historical remedies available", "paragraph_id": "para_670" }, { "text": "for an unlawful removal.5", "paragraph_id": "para_671" }, { "text": "In sum, the government is likely to succeed in its appeal of", "paragraph_id": "para_672" }, { "text": "the district court’s injunction, which orders relief that exceeds", "paragraph_id": "para_673" }, { "text": "the Article III judicial authority and intrudes on the President’s", "paragraph_id": "para_674" }, { "text": "exercise of executive power.", "paragraph_id": "para_675" }, { "text": "5 The district court suggested that, alternatively, “mandamus", "paragraph_id": "para_676" }, { "text": "relief would be proper if injunctive relief were to become", "paragraph_id": "para_677" }, { "text": "unavailable.” Slaughter, 2025 WL 1984396, at *20 n.12. That is", "paragraph_id": "para_678" }, { "text": "unlikely. The district court has no authority to issue mandamus", "paragraph_id": "para_679" }, { "text": "against the remaining FTC Commissioners because they have not", "paragraph_id": "para_680" }, { "text": "violated a “clear duty to act.” Muthana v. Pompeo, 985 F.3d 893, 910", "paragraph_id": "para_681" }, { "text": "(D.C. Cir. 2021). The Commissioners did not, and could not, remove", "paragraph_id": "para_682" }, { "text": "Slaughter from office. Nor did they violate any “clear duty” when", "paragraph_id": "para_683" }, { "text": "effectuating the President’s removal. If the district court was", "paragraph_id": "para_684" }, { "text": "suggesting that mandamus could issue against the President, that", "paragraph_id": "para_685" }, { "text": "would be unprecedented and inconsistent with the respect due to the", "paragraph_id": "para_686" }, { "text": "President in the exercise of his exclusive powers. Moreover, in light", "paragraph_id": "para_687" }, { "text": "of the uncertainty surrounding Humphrey’s Executor, it is hard to see", "paragraph_id": "para_688" }, { "text": "how Slaughter’s removal could be “so plainly and palpably wrong as", "paragraph_id": "para_689" }, { "text": "a matter of law” to justify this extraordinary step. Harris, 2025 WL", "paragraph_id": "para_690" }, { "text": "1021435, at *7 (Rao, J., dissenting) (cleaned up).", "paragraph_id": "para_691" }, { "text": "7", "paragraph_id": "para_692" }, { "text": "2.", "paragraph_id": "para_693", "court_paragraph": 7 }, { "text": "In addition to lacking authority to order the reinstatement", "paragraph_id": "para_694" }, { "text": "of an officer removed by the President, the district court erred", "paragraph_id": "para_695" }, { "text": "in concluding that Slaughter had demonstrated the irreparable", "paragraph_id": "para_696" }, { "text": "harm necessary to support a permanent injunction. “This circuit", "paragraph_id": "para_697" }, { "text": "has set a high standard for irreparable injury.” Chaplaincy of", "paragraph_id": "para_698" }, { "text": "Full Gospel Churches v. England, 454 F.3d 290, 297 (D.C. Cir.", "paragraph_id": "para_699" }, { "text": "2006). The claimed injury must be “both certain and great” and", "paragraph_id": "para_700" }, { "text": "“beyond remediation.” Id. The Supreme Court has already held", "paragraph_id": "para_701" }, { "text": "that loss of employment ordinarily does not constitute", "paragraph_id": "para_702" }, { "text": "irreparable injury. Sampson v. Murray, 415 U.S. 61, 92 n.68", "paragraph_id": "para_703" }, { "text": "(1974) (recognizing that, except in “extraordinary cases,” the", "paragraph_id": "para_704" }, { "text": "“circumstances surrounding an employee’s discharge” will not", "paragraph_id": "para_705" }, { "text": "support a finding of irreparable injury). The district court", "paragraph_id": "para_706" }, { "text": "recognized this general rule but nonetheless found irreparable", "paragraph_id": "para_707" }, { "text": "injury because after her removal Slaughter “lost the ability to", "paragraph_id": "para_708" }, { "text": "influence federal decision-making” on the policies governed by", "paragraph_id": "para_709" }, { "text": "the FTC and lost “the opportunity to serve as part of a", "paragraph_id": "para_710" }, { "text": "bipartisan, congressionally protected agency that is designed to", "paragraph_id": "para_711" }, { "text": "operate independent of executive authority.” Slaughter, 2025", "paragraph_id": "para_712" }, { "text": "WL 1984396, at *17–18 (cleaned up). The district court", "paragraph_id": "para_713" }, { "text": "concluded that Slaughter’s removal destroys the", "paragraph_id": "para_714" }, { "text": "“independence” of the FTC in a way that “injures Ms.", "paragraph_id": "para_715" }, { "text": "Slaughter, the FTC, and Congress.” Id. at *18.", "paragraph_id": "para_716" }, { "text": "The loss of the ability to “influence” FTC policies or to", "paragraph_id": "para_717" }, { "text": "participate in decisionmaking is not a personal injury to", "paragraph_id": "para_718" }, { "text": "Slaughter. She has no private right to the powers of an FTC", "paragraph_id": "para_719" }, { "text": "commissioner’s office. “[N]o officers of the United States, of", "paragraph_id": "para_720" }, { "text": "whatever Branch, exercise their governmental powers as", "paragraph_id": "para_721" }, { "text": "personal prerogatives in which they have a judicially", "paragraph_id": "para_722" }, { "text": "cognizable private interest. They wield those powers not as", "paragraph_id": "para_723" }, { "text": "private citizens but only through the public office which they", "paragraph_id": "para_724" }, { "text": "hold.” Moore v. U.S. House of Reps., 733 F.2d 946, 959 (D.C.", "paragraph_id": "para_725" }, { "text": "8", "paragraph_id": "para_726" }, { "text": "Cir. 1984) (Scalia, J., concurring in result). Slaughter’s “loss of", "paragraph_id": "para_727", "court_paragraph": 8 }, { "text": "political power” has deprived her of nothing to which she is", "paragraph_id": "para_728" }, { "text": "personally entitled. Cf. Raines v. Byrd, 521 U.S. 811, 821", "paragraph_id": "para_729" }, { "text": "(1997) (rejecting a “loss of political power” as a basis for", "paragraph_id": "para_730" }, { "text": "congressional standing). To conclude otherwise would be to", "paragraph_id": "para_731" }, { "text": "embrace a theory of government power “alien to the concept of", "paragraph_id": "para_732" }, { "text": "a republican form of government.” Barnes v. Kline, 759 F.2d", "paragraph_id": "para_733" }, { "text": "21, 50 (D.C. Cir. 1985) (Bork, J., dissenting). Slaughter no", "paragraph_id": "para_734" }, { "text": "doubt considers that she has suffered professionally from her", "paragraph_id": "para_735" }, { "text": "removal. The personal loss of this office, however, is", "paragraph_id": "para_736" }, { "text": "remediable through damages. See Moore, 733 F.2d at 959", "paragraph_id": "para_737" }, { "text": "(Scalia, J., concurring in result) (recognizing a private right to", "paragraph_id": "para_738" }, { "text": "“the emoluments of the office” but not the “powers of the", "paragraph_id": "para_739" }, { "text": "office,” which “belong to the people”).", "paragraph_id": "para_740" }, { "text": "Nor does Slaughter have a private right to the so-called", "paragraph_id": "para_741" }, { "text": "independence of the FTC or to the general enforcement of the", "paragraph_id": "para_742" }, { "text": "statutory for-cause removal protection. Any “claimed injury”", "paragraph_id": "para_743" }, { "text": "to those interests is not personal, but rather “runs … with the", "paragraph_id": "para_744" }, { "text": "[commissioner’s] seat.” Raines, 521 U.S. at 821. Individual", "paragraph_id": "para_745" }, { "text": "officers may not turn to the federal courts to redress injuries to", "paragraph_id": "para_746" }, { "text": "the institutions in which they serve. See Va. House of Delegates", "paragraph_id": "para_747" }, { "text": "v. Bethune-Hill, 139 S. Ct. 1945, 1953 (2019) (explaining that", "paragraph_id": "para_748" }, { "text": "“individual members lack standing to assert the institutional", "paragraph_id": "para_749" }, { "text": "interests of a legislature”); Raines, 521 U.S. at 833 (Souter, J.,", "paragraph_id": "para_750" }, { "text": "concurring in the judgment) (“[A] dispute involving only", "paragraph_id": "para_751" }, { "text": "officials, and the official interests of those, who serve in the", "paragraph_id": "para_752" }, { "text": "branches of the National Government lies far from the model", "paragraph_id": "para_753" }, { "text": "of the traditional common-law cause of action at the conceptual", "paragraph_id": "para_754" }, { "text": "core of the case-or-controversy requirement.”); Maloney v.", "paragraph_id": "para_755" }, { "text": "Carnahan, 45 F.4th 215, 225 (D.C. Cir. 2022) (Rao, J.,", "paragraph_id": "para_756" }, { "text": "dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc) (explaining", "paragraph_id": "para_757" }, { "text": "that “[i]njuries to the official interests of a member of", "paragraph_id": "para_758" }, { "text": "Congress,” like other institutional harms, “lie outside the", "paragraph_id": "para_759" }, { "text": "traditional understanding of the ‘Cases’ and ‘Controversies’", "paragraph_id": "para_760" }, { "text": "9", "paragraph_id": "para_761" }, { "text": "cognizable by the Article III courts”). Slaughter’s personal", "paragraph_id": "para_762", "court_paragraph": 9 }, { "text": "harms from being fired are compensable through backpay, and", "paragraph_id": "para_763" }, { "text": "she has no standing to vindicate the institutional harms to the", "paragraph_id": "para_764" }, { "text": "FTC or whatever injury the district court believes has been", "paragraph_id": "para_765" }, { "text": "inflicted on Congress.", "paragraph_id": "para_766" }, { "text": "My colleagues also reinforce the absence of irreparable", "paragraph_id": "para_767" }, { "text": "injury to Slaughter. They maintain that Slaughter’s role as a", "paragraph_id": "para_768" }, { "text": "minority commissioner is powerless and that she cannot affect", "paragraph_id": "para_769" }, { "text": "policymaking or enforcement. Order at 12–13. If my", "paragraph_id": "para_770" }, { "text": "colleagues are correct on this score, the injunction must be", "paragraph_id": "para_771" }, { "text": "stayed because the district court clearly erred in finding", "paragraph_id": "para_772" }, { "text": "irreparable injury to Slaughter and the FTC. See Slaughter,", "paragraph_id": "para_773" }, { "text": "2025 WL 1984396, at *18 (finding irreparable injury in part", "paragraph_id": "para_774" }, { "text": "because “the unique role of an FTC Commissioner … includes", "paragraph_id": "para_775" }, { "text": "the opportunity to serve as part of a bipartisan, congressionally", "paragraph_id": "para_776" }, { "text": "protected agency that is designed to operate independent of", "paragraph_id": "para_777" }, { "text": "executive authority”) (cleaned up). It can’t be that Slaughter’s", "paragraph_id": "para_778" }, { "text": "continued service on the Commission is both essential to", "paragraph_id": "para_779" }, { "text": "preserving its statutory independence and has no meaningful", "paragraph_id": "para_780" }, { "text": "effect on its work.", "paragraph_id": "para_781" }, { "text": "The district court clearly erred in finding irreparable harm,", "paragraph_id": "para_782" }, { "text": "and this independently justifies a stay of the injunction.", "paragraph_id": "para_783" }, { "text": "3.", "paragraph_id": "para_784" }, { "text": "I next turn to the lawfulness of Slaughter’s removal, a", "paragraph_id": "para_785" }, { "text": "question on which the government maintains it is likely to", "paragraph_id": "para_786" }, { "text": "prevail on appeal because the modern FTC does not fit within", "paragraph_id": "para_787" }, { "text": "any exception to the general rule that the President may remove", "paragraph_id": "para_788" }, { "text": "officers at will.", "paragraph_id": "para_789" }, { "text": "The Constitution vests the entirety of the executive power", "paragraph_id": "para_790" }, { "text": "in the President. U.S. Const. art. II, § 1, cl. 1. It is well", "paragraph_id": "para_791" }, { "text": "established that this grant includes the power to remove", "paragraph_id": "para_792" }, { "text": "10", "paragraph_id": "para_793" }, { "text": "officers who exercise the executive power on the President’s", "paragraph_id": "para_794", "court_paragraph": 10 }, { "text": "behalf. Myers, 272 U.S. at 117, 163–64; Seila Law LLC v.", "paragraph_id": "para_795" }, { "text": "CFPB, 140 S. Ct. 2183, 2197–98 (2020); see Collins v. Yellen,", "paragraph_id": "para_796" }, { "text": "141 S. Ct. 1761, 1786–87 (2021). The removal power ensures", "paragraph_id": "para_797" }, { "text": "that officers “remain accountable to the President, whose", "paragraph_id": "para_798" }, { "text": "authority they wield.” Seila Law, 140 S. Ct. at 2197. The", "paragraph_id": "para_799" }, { "text": "President must be able to control and supervise his", "paragraph_id": "para_800" }, { "text": "subordinates in order to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully", "paragraph_id": "para_801" }, { "text": "executed.” U.S. Const. art. II, § 3; see Free Enter. Fund v. Pub.", "paragraph_id": "para_802" }, { "text": "Co. Acct. Oversight Bd., 561 U.S. 477, 483 (2010).", "paragraph_id": "para_803" }, { "text": "Of course, as my colleagues emphasize, the Supreme", "paragraph_id": "para_804" }, { "text": "Court has continued to recognize an exception to the", "paragraph_id": "para_805" }, { "text": "President’s removal power for members of “a multimember", "paragraph_id": "para_806" }, { "text": "body of experts, balanced along partisan lines, that performed", "paragraph_id": "para_807" }, { "text": "legislative and judicial functions and was said not to exercise", "paragraph_id": "para_808" }, { "text": "any executive power.” Seila Law, 140 S. Ct. at 2198–99", "paragraph_id": "para_809" }, { "text": "(discussing Humphrey’s Executor). Although the Court has", "paragraph_id": "para_810" }, { "text": "explicitly declined to overrule Humphrey’s Executor, it has", "paragraph_id": "para_811" }, { "text": "eviscerated its reasoning and rejected attempts to extend it to", "paragraph_id": "para_812" }, { "text": "“new situation[s].” Seila Law, 140 S. Ct. at 2211; Free Enter.", "paragraph_id": "para_813" }, { "text": "Fund., 561 U.S. at 483–84; see also Boyle, 145 S. Ct. at 2654–", "paragraph_id": "para_814" }, { "text": "55 (Kavanaugh, J., concurring) (suggesting “at least a fair", "paragraph_id": "para_815" }, { "text": "prospect (not certainty, but at least some reasonable prospect)”", "paragraph_id": "para_816" }, { "text": "that Humphrey’s Executor will be further “narrow[ed]” or", "paragraph_id": "para_817" }, { "text": "“overrule[d]”). Without further guidance from the Supreme", "paragraph_id": "para_818" }, { "text": "Court, lower courts are put in a somewhat difficult position", "paragraph_id": "para_819" }, { "text": "because we are required to adhere to both the Court’s holdings", "paragraph_id": "para_820" }, { "text": "and its reasoning. With respect to Humphrey’s Executor,", "paragraph_id": "para_821" }, { "text": "however, the Court’s holding and reasoning have diverged.", "paragraph_id": "para_822" }, { "text": "I have long thought that Humphrey’s Executor should be", "paragraph_id": "para_823" }, { "text": "overruled because it is inconsistent with the Constitution’s", "paragraph_id": "para_824" }, { "text": "vesting of all executive power in the President and with more", "paragraph_id": "para_825" }, { "text": "11", "paragraph_id": "para_826" }, { "text": "recent Supreme Court decisions.6 Of course, I agree with my", "paragraph_id": "para_827", "court_paragraph": 11 }, { "text": "colleagues that only the Supreme Court may overrule its", "paragraph_id": "para_828" }, { "text": "precedents. Mallory v. Norfolk S. Ry. Co., 143 S. Ct. 2028,", "paragraph_id": "para_829" }, { "text": "2038 (2023) (emphasizing that lower courts must “leav[e] to", "paragraph_id": "para_830" }, { "text": "[the] Court the prerogative of overruling its own decisions”).", "paragraph_id": "para_831" }, { "text": "Granting a stay of the district court’s injunction, however,", "paragraph_id": "para_832" }, { "text": "does not require this court to claim that Humphrey’s Executor", "paragraph_id": "para_833" }, { "text": "has been overruled. Instead, the stay is warranted by the", "paragraph_id": "para_834" }, { "text": "Supreme Court’s decisions to stay injunctions ordering the", "paragraph_id": "para_835" }, { "text": "reinstatement of removed officers. See Wilcox, 145 S. Ct. at", "paragraph_id": "para_836" }, { "text": "1415; Boyle, 145 S. Ct. at 2654. Even while leaving", "paragraph_id": "para_837" }, { "text": "Humphrey’s Executor on the books, the Court has recognized", "paragraph_id": "para_838" }, { "text": "that members of the National Labor Relations Board", "paragraph_id": "para_839" }, { "text": "(“NLRB”), the Merit Systems Protection Board (“MSPB”),", "paragraph_id": "para_840" }, { "text": "and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”), all", "paragraph_id": "para_841" }, { "text": "so-called independent multi-member agencies, exercise", "paragraph_id": "para_842" }, { "text": "“considerable executive power.” Wilcox, 145 S. Ct. at 1415;", "paragraph_id": "para_843" }, { "text": "see Boyle, 145 S. Ct. at 2654. The Court explicitly declined in", "paragraph_id": "para_844" }, { "text": "an emergency stay posture to decide whether these agencies", "paragraph_id": "para_845" }, { "text": "would fit within the Humphrey’s Executor exception.", "paragraph_id": "para_846" }, { "text": "6 The text, structure, and original meaning of the Constitution all", "paragraph_id": "para_847" }, { "text": "point in the same direction—the President’s control and supervision", "paragraph_id": "para_848" }, { "text": "of the Executive Branch requires that he be able to remove his", "paragraph_id": "para_849" }, { "text": "officers at will. It follows that Congress cannot limit his removal", "paragraph_id": "para_850" }, { "text": "power. See Myers, 272 U.S. at 134 (“The imperative reasons", "paragraph_id": "para_851" }, { "text": "requiring [the President’s] unrestricted power to remove the most", "paragraph_id": "para_852" }, { "text": "important of his subordinates in their most important duties must", "paragraph_id": "para_853" }, { "text": "therefore control the interpretation of the Constitution as to all", "paragraph_id": "para_854" }, { "text": "appointed by him.”); Seila Law, 140 S. Ct. at 2212 (Thomas, J.,", "paragraph_id": "para_855" }, { "text": "concurring in part and dissenting in part) (explaining that officer", "paragraph_id": "para_856" }, { "text": "removal restrictions are irreconcilable with “the clear vesting of", "paragraph_id": "para_857" }, { "text": "executive power in the President”); see also Neomi Rao, Removal:", "paragraph_id": "para_858" }, { "text": "Necessary and Sufficient for Presidential Control, 65 Ala. L. Rev.", "paragraph_id": "para_859" }, { "text": "1205, 1212–16, 1244 (2014).", "paragraph_id": "para_860" }, { "text": "12", "paragraph_id": "para_861" }, { "text": "Nonetheless, the Court stayed injunctions that ordered the", "paragraph_id": "para_862", "court_paragraph": 12 }, { "text": "reinstatement of officers of those agencies removed by the", "paragraph_id": "para_863" }, { "text": "President. Wilcox, 145 S. Ct. at 1415; see Boyle, 145 S. Ct. at", "paragraph_id": "para_864" }, { "text": "2654.", "paragraph_id": "para_865" }, { "text": "The reasoning of these orders must be applied to stay", "paragraph_id": "para_866" }, { "text": "Slaughter’s reinstatement. Everyone agrees that FTC", "paragraph_id": "para_867" }, { "text": "commissioners are principal officers who exercise “substantial", "paragraph_id": "para_868" }, { "text": "executive power.” Order at 1, 5–9 (recounting the executive", "paragraph_id": "para_869" }, { "text": "powers of the FTC). While leaving Humphrey’s Executor in", "paragraph_id": "para_870" }, { "text": "place, the Supreme Court has explicitly recognized that the", "paragraph_id": "para_871" }, { "text": "“conclusion that the FTC did not exercise executive power has", "paragraph_id": "para_872" }, { "text": "not withstood the test of time.”7 Seila Law, 140 S. Ct. at 2198", "paragraph_id": "para_873" }, { "text": "n.2. The Constitution establishes three departments of the", "paragraph_id": "para_874" }, { "text": "federal government, and the so-called independent agencies are", "paragraph_id": "para_875" }, { "text": "necessarily part of the Executive Branch, not some headless", "paragraph_id": "para_876" }, { "text": "fourth branch. Commissioners of the FTC exercise", "paragraph_id": "para_877" }, { "text": "“considerable executive power,” and such officers are not", "paragraph_id": "para_878" }, { "text": "entitled to reinstatement while they litigate the lawfulness of", "paragraph_id": "para_879" }, { "text": "their removal. Wilcox, 145 S. Ct. at 1415; see Boyle, 145 S. Ct.", "paragraph_id": "para_880" }, { "text": "at 2654.", "paragraph_id": "para_881" }, { "text": "In the stay posture, the Supreme Court has withheld", "paragraph_id": "para_882" }, { "text": "judgment on the lawfulness of the President’s removals of so-", "paragraph_id": "para_883" }, { "text": "called independent agency heads, focusing instead on the harm", "paragraph_id": "para_884" }, { "text": "to the government from reinstatement. That reasoning similarly", "paragraph_id": "para_885" }, { "text": "requires a stay here while the merits of the removal, and the", "paragraph_id": "para_886" }, { "text": "7 In light of the Supreme Court’s explicit recognition that, despite the", "paragraph_id": "para_887" }, { "text": "reasoning of Humphrey’s Executor, the 1935 FTC exercised", "paragraph_id": "para_888" }, { "text": "executive power, there is no need to parse the past and present", "paragraph_id": "para_889" }, { "text": "powers of the FTC. The Commission exercised executive power in", "paragraph_id": "para_890" }, { "text": "1935, and Congress has only expanded the powers of the FTC in the", "paragraph_id": "para_891" }, { "text": "intervening years. See Eli Nachmany, The Original FTC, 77 Ala. L.", "paragraph_id": "para_892" }, { "text": "Rev. 1 (forthcoming 2025) (unpublished manuscript at 42–49).", "paragraph_id": "para_893" }, { "text": "13", "paragraph_id": "para_894" }, { "text": "ongoing validity of Humphrey’s Executor, continue to be", "paragraph_id": "para_895", "court_paragraph": 13 }, { "text": "litigated.", "paragraph_id": "para_896" }, { "text": "B.", "paragraph_id": "para_897" }, { "text": "The balance of the equities also favors the government. Cf.", "paragraph_id": "para_898" }, { "text": "Nken, 556 U.S. at 434. The Supreme Court’s recent stay", "paragraph_id": "para_899" }, { "text": "decisions in similar removal cases must inform how we", "paragraph_id": "para_900" }, { "text": "“exercise [our] equitable discretion in like cases.” Boyle, 145", "paragraph_id": "para_901" }, { "text": "S. Ct. at 2654; see Nat’l Institutes of Health v. Am. Pub. Health", "paragraph_id": "para_902" }, { "text": "Ass’n, No. 25A103, 2025 WL 2415669, at *3–5 (Aug. 21,", "paragraph_id": "para_903" }, { "text": "2025) (Gorsuch, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part).", "paragraph_id": "para_904" }, { "text": "In Wilcox, the Supreme Court determined that “the", "paragraph_id": "para_905" }, { "text": "Government faces greater risk of harm from an order allowing", "paragraph_id": "para_906" }, { "text": "a removed officer to continue exercising the executive power", "paragraph_id": "para_907" }, { "text": "than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable to", "paragraph_id": "para_908" }, { "text": "perform her statutory duty.” 145 S. Ct. at 1415. The Court", "paragraph_id": "para_909" }, { "text": "expressly reaffirmed this conclusion in Boyle—and chided a", "paragraph_id": "para_910" }, { "text": "lower court for failing to follow Wilcox. See Boyle, 145 S. Ct.", "paragraph_id": "para_911" }, { "text": "at 2654 (“The application is squarely controlled by Trump v.", "paragraph_id": "para_912" }, { "text": "Wilcox. Although our interim orders are not conclusive as to", "paragraph_id": "para_913" }, { "text": "the merits, they inform how a court should exercise its", "paragraph_id": "para_914" }, { "text": "equitable discretion in like cases.”) (cleaned up). On the logic", "paragraph_id": "para_915" }, { "text": "of Wilcox and Boyle, the balance of equities here likewise", "paragraph_id": "para_916" }, { "text": "favors a stay because the district court’s reinstatement order", "paragraph_id": "para_917" }, { "text": "encroaches on the President’s constitutional control over the", "paragraph_id": "para_918" }, { "text": "Executive Branch, and this harm is greater than any harm to", "paragraph_id": "para_919" }, { "text": "Slaughter from an allegedly unlawful removal.", "paragraph_id": "para_920" }, { "text": "Despite the Supreme Court’s explicit directions, my", "paragraph_id": "para_921" }, { "text": "colleagues apply a different “equitable calculus.” Order at 12–", "paragraph_id": "para_922" }, { "text": "13. But they fail to distinguish this case from Wilcox and Boyle.", "paragraph_id": "para_923" }, { "text": "They primarily rely on Humphrey’s Executor as establishing", "paragraph_id": "para_924" }, { "text": "the wrongfulness of Slaughter’s removal. See id. at 12. But the", "paragraph_id": "para_925" }, { "text": "Supreme Court’s balancing in Wilcox and Boyle explicitly held", "paragraph_id": "para_926" }, { "text": "14", "paragraph_id": "para_927" }, { "text": "that the government’s risk of harm from reinstatement of a", "paragraph_id": "para_928", "court_paragraph": 14 }, { "text": "removed officer is greater than the harm “a wrongfully removed", "paragraph_id": "para_929" }, { "text": "officer faces from being unable to perform her statutory duty.”", "paragraph_id": "para_930" }, { "text": "Wilcox, 145 S. Ct. at 1415 (emphasis added); accord Boyle,", "paragraph_id": "para_931" }, { "text": "145 S. Ct. at 2654. The Court’s equitable judgment was that—", "paragraph_id": "para_932" }, { "text": "even assuming the removals were unlawful—the government", "paragraph_id": "para_933" }, { "text": "faced the greater harm from reinstatement. That same equitable", "paragraph_id": "para_934" }, { "text": "judgment must be applied here.", "paragraph_id": "para_935" }, { "text": "My colleagues also rely on their observation that, because", "paragraph_id": "para_936" }, { "text": "Slaughter is a minority commissioner, she cannot take any", "paragraph_id": "para_937" }, { "text": "action opposed by the Commission majority. See Order at 12.", "paragraph_id": "para_938" }, { "text": "But nothing in Wilcox or Boyle turned on the extent of the", "paragraph_id": "para_939" }, { "text": "removed officer’s functional power based on the party", "paragraph_id": "para_940" }, { "text": "affiliation of the remaining board or commission members. My", "paragraph_id": "para_941" }, { "text": "colleagues offer an equitable balance that turns in part on", "paragraph_id": "para_942" }, { "text": "whether there are currently one, two, or three commissioners", "paragraph_id": "para_943" }, { "text": "of the President’s party serving on the FTC. This", "paragraph_id": "para_944" }, { "text": "unprecedented principle suggests that injunctive relief turns on", "paragraph_id": "para_945" }, { "text": "a judicial assessment of just how much reinstatement would", "paragraph_id": "para_946" }, { "text": "impede the President’s execution of the laws at a multi-member", "paragraph_id": "para_947" }, { "text": "agency. But such functional reasoning is at odds with the", "paragraph_id": "para_948" }, { "text": "simple fact that the President is vested with all of the “executive", "paragraph_id": "para_949" }, { "text": "Power,” not some of it. U.S. Const. art. II, § 1.", "paragraph_id": "para_950" }, { "text": "As a commissioner of the FTC, Slaughter exercised", "paragraph_id": "para_951" }, { "text": "substantial executive power, no less than members of the", "paragraph_id": "para_952" }, { "text": "NLRB, MSPB, and CPSC. The harm to the government from", "paragraph_id": "para_953" }, { "text": "judicial reinstatement of Slaughter after the President’s", "paragraph_id": "para_954" }, { "text": "removal is the same harm the Supreme Court identified in", "paragraph_id": "para_955" }, { "text": "Wilcox and Boyle.", "paragraph_id": "para_956" }, { "text": "Finally, my colleagues attempt to rely on the fact that", "paragraph_id": "para_957" }, { "text": "individual commissioners of the multi-member FTC “wield no", "paragraph_id": "para_958" }, { "text": "unilateral authority.” Order at 13. But again, that is equally true", "paragraph_id": "para_959" }, { "text": "15", "paragraph_id": "para_960" }, { "text": "for the members of the NLRB, MSPB, and CPSC. The fact that", "paragraph_id": "para_961", "court_paragraph": 15 }, { "text": "only a majority of commissioners may exercise many of the", "paragraph_id": "para_962" }, { "text": "powers of the FTC does nothing to diminish the fact that each", "paragraph_id": "para_963" }, { "text": "commissioner is a principal officer exercising executive power.", "paragraph_id": "para_964" }, { "text": "The government suffers a harm from the judicial reinstatement", "paragraph_id": "para_965" }, { "text": "of an executive officer removed by the President. In these", "paragraph_id": "para_966" }, { "text": "circumstances, the Supreme Court has held that the", "paragraph_id": "para_967" }, { "text": "government is entitled to a stay.", "paragraph_id": "para_968" }, { "text": "The balance of equities here is ultimately indistinguishable", "paragraph_id": "para_969" }, { "text": "from that in Wilcox and Boyle and therefore favors the", "paragraph_id": "para_970" }, { "text": "government.", "paragraph_id": "para_971" }, { "text": "* * *", "paragraph_id": "para_972" }, { "text": "Following the Supreme Court’s direction, the district", "paragraph_id": "para_973" }, { "text": "court’s far-reaching injunction must be stayed. An injunction", "paragraph_id": "para_974" }, { "text": "ordering reinstatement of an officer removed by the President", "paragraph_id": "para_975" }, { "text": "likely exceeds the Article III judicial power and encroaches on", "paragraph_id": "para_976" }, { "text": "the President’s exercise of the Article II executive power. 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