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Supreme Court considering case that could prematurely end Anna Gomez' stay on the FCC

T

ted chittenden

There are two NPR stories about the case brought by Rebecca Slaughter after she was fired from the FCC on"Morning Edition." The link to the first discussing the specifics of the case can be found at



and an interview about the ramifications of this case with legal scholar Jeffrey Rosen can be found at




As Mr. Rosen notes, if Ms. Slaughter loses her case (and there is a very good chance of that with the current Supreme Court Justice lineup), Anna Gomez's job as FCC commissioner is likely doomed as well. It will not matter to President Trump if the FCC will have enough commissioners to make a quorum--he will just change the rules to say that two is a quorum. This case has a lot of implications for other Federal departments as well as Congress' ability to regulate the behavior of the executive branch if President Trump gets his way.

One final note. Though only the audio of these stories is up now on the NPR website, I do expect a full transcript of both conversations to be there either later today or tomorrow.
 
ted chittenden said:
As Mr. Rosen notes, if Ms. Slaughter loses her case (and there is a very good chance of that with the current Supreme Court Justice lineup), Anna Gomez's job as FCC commissioner is likely doomed as well.
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Keep in mind that by statute, the FCC reports to congress, not the president. The fact of the matter is that the president doesn't need to remove Gomez. She is in the minority, and her vote can't affect any FCC policy. So there's no reason to cause an issue.

BTW Slaughter was on the FTC, not the FCC.
 
TheBigA said:
Keep in mind that by statute, the FCC reports to congress, not the president. The fact of the matter is that the president doesn't need to remove Gomez. She is in the minority, and her vote can't affect any FCC policy. So there's no reason to cause an issue.
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Also, what constitutes a quorum is spelled out in the Communications Act of 1934, which created the FCC as a replacement for the FRC. He cannot change that by executive order, much as he might want to.

Sometimes I think that Congress never should have changed the FCC from seven members with seven-year terms in 1986. Things would have evolved more equitably between broadcasters and the public if they had left it alone. (And speaking of the past composition of the Commission, I imagine Frieda Hennock is spinning in her grave over what's been done to public broadcasting.)
 
TheBigA said:
Keep in mind that by statute, the FCC reports to congress, not the president. The fact of the matter is that the president doesn't need to remove Gomez. She is in the minority, and her vote can't affect any FCC policy. So there's no reason to cause an issue.

BTW Slaughter was on the FTC, not the FCC.
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Yes. Mrs. Slaughter is at the FTC. However, as Mr. Rosen points out, if the Court rules against Rebecca Slaughter, then it will be open season for the Trump Administration to remove all commissioners in other Federal agencies if they do not agree with his viewpoint, and it will not matter if the commissioner is guaranteed to be a minority member by law.
 
ted chittenden said:
Yes. Mrs. Slaughter is at the FTC. However, as Mr. Rosen points out, if the Court rules against Rebecca Slaughter, then it will be open season for the Trump Administration to remove all commissioners in other Federal agencies if they do not agree with his viewpoint, and it will not matter if the commissioner is guaranteed to be a minority member by law.
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The context here is that at the start of this year, the FTC was majority democrat, nominated by Biden, and those commissioners still had time left in their terms. So now it's majority republican. He already has that situation at the FCC. No need to do anything. Gomez is not a threat to his power.

So yes, this is a problem, and a normal congress would step in and prevent this from happening. The current congress doesn't care and is abdicating its authority. This is the government the people voted for.
 
TheBigA said:
This is the government the people voted for.
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And apparently is starting to regret, if protests and polls are any indication. I have read reports (please don't ask me to cite ... I did not bookmark any of them) that even a relative handful of MAGA voters are expressing negative sentiments, especially since the combination of tariffs and deporting agricultural workers is creating exactly the opposite to the idiot-in-chief's promise to lower prices.
 


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