Courts Won't Stop Trump’s Hostile Takeover of the FTC. Here's How to Resist.

In Humphrey’s Executor v. FTC (1935), the Supreme Court upheld this limit after President Franklin Roosevelt fired an FTC Commissioner for inadequately supporting the New Deal. While the CFPB has some powers the FTC lacks (e.g., it “may unilaterally issue final decisions awarding legal and equitable relief in administrative adjudications”), the FTC may, like the CFPB, “seek daunting monetary penalties against private parties on behalf of the United States in federal court—a quintessentially executive power not considered in Humphrey’s Executor.” The 2023 adequacy determination asserts that both the FTC and PCLOB are “independent” and specifically notes the removal limits in the FTC Act as if these offer the “complete independence” required by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).