Supreme Court Holds FTC Removal Protections Unconstitutional
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 29, 2026, that the FTC's statutory protections shielding commissioners from removal without cause are unconstitutional, finding that commissioners exercise executive power and must therefore serve at the president's discretion. The ruling validated President Trump's removal of Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.
Why this matters: The FTC is one of the few federal agencies with real teeth on privacy and data protection. It investigates companies, sets enforcement priorities, and can impose serious consequences on bad actors. Making commissioners removable at will means a sitting president can reshape that agenda overnight, without Congress doing anything. That matters for anyone counting on the FTC to hold data brokers, tech platforms, or AI companies accountable. Independent enforcement is not a bureaucratic technicality. It is the mechanism that makes the rules mean something.
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