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  "description": "Meador confirmed amid a legal challenge by two ousted Democratic FTC commissioners.",
  "path": "/senate-confirms-trump-nominee-mark-meador-to-ftc-on-party-line-vote/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-04-11T18:44:45.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "_issued a short statement_",
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    "_a March 21 letter_",
    "_March 27 complaint_",
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  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, April 11, 2025 – The Senate on Thursday confirmed antitrust attorney **Mark Meador** to the Federal Trade Commission in a 50-46 party-line vote, finalizing a 3-0 Republican majority just two weeks after President **Donald Trump** removed the FTC’s two Democratic commissioners.\n\nMeador, who most recently worked in private practice and served as a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Tech Policy Center, previously held roles at the Justice Department and in the office of Sen. **Mike Lee** , R-Utah. He joins Chairman **Andrew Ferguson** and Commissioner **Melissa Holyoak** — both Trump appointees — at the now all-Republican commission.\n\nFerguson _issued a short statement_ Thursday congratulating Meador, saying, “Mark is a brilliant antitrust lawyer who will be a great asset to the Trump-Vance FTC.”\n\nPublic Knowledge _issued a statement_ applauding senators who opposed Meador’s confirmation, calling the firings a “direct attack on the independence of an agency that has long served as a cornerstone of consumer protection.” The group also led _a March 21 letter_ signed by over a dozen public interest organizations urging lawmakers to reject Meador’s nomination.\n\nOusted Democratic Commissioners **Rebecca Kelly Slaughter** and **Alvaro Bedoya** , have argued that their fixed-term roles are protected by federal statute and Supreme Court precedent. In a lawsuit filed March 27 they asked a federal judge to block the administration from locking them out of their posts.\n\n“It is bedrock, binding precedent that a President cannot remove an FTC Commissioner without cause,” the pair wrote in their _March 27 complaint_. “And yet that is precisely what has happened here.”\n\nThey described Trump’s action as a violation of “a century of federal law and Supreme Court precedent.” In _Humphrey’s Executor v. United States_ (1935), the Supreme Court ruled that presidents cannot remove FTC commissioners without cause — a protection designed to preserve the agency’s independence from executive overreach.\n\nBut current Ferguson has cast doubt on whether that precedent still applies. Speaking _at a policy conference last month_, Ferguson called _Humphrey’s Executor_ “outdated,” arguing that the FTC in 2025 exercises far more executive power than it did in 1935.\n\nMeanwhile, Republican lawmakers sharply criticized the Democratic-led FTC under the Biden administration, accusing it of veering from its traditional role.\n\nIn a joint statement, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair**Brett Guthrie** , R-Ky., and Rep. **Gus Bilirakis** , R-Fla., said the FTC had “abandoned its rich bipartisan tradition and historical mission in favor of a radical agenda and partisan mismanagement.”\n\nDuring his confirmation process last year, Ferguson pledged to “abide by binding Supreme Court precedent,” _saying_ that _Humphrey’s Executor_ “remains binding precedent until [the Court] sees fit to reconsider [it].”",
  "title": "Senate Confirms Trump Nominee Mark Meador to FTC on Party-Line Vote",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-11T03:31:17.645Z"
}