Sep. 16, 2025
When independence dies, power moves to the president
President Trump and his conservative Supreme Court allies are challenging long-standing legal protections for independent federal agencies, targeting institutions like the Federal Reserve and raising questions about the future of regulatory autonomy.
William Rothbard
Email: Rothbard@FTCAdLaw.com
William Rothbard also represents clients in federal and state deceptive advertising investigations and enforcement actions as well as consumer class actions and has litigated and settled scores of matters. He provides advertising-related transactional services, including contracts, trademarks, sweepstakes and contests. Bill writes and speaks often on advertising and marketing law topics. He has served as the Editor of Competition, an antitrust and trade regulation journal published by the California State Bar Antitrust and Trade Regulation Section, and is the author of the legal blog, FTCAdLaw Alert, which can be found on his firm website. He has served as an advertising law expert in FTC-related cases and serves as an expert within his field in the global expert consulting network of the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG). Prior to entering private practice, Bill was an attorney with the FTC, holding positions as an advertising enforcement attorney, Deputy Assistant Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and Attorney-Advisor to the FTC Chairman. He also served as Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies and Business Rights. He is a graduate of UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings College of Law) and The University of Michigan. In his civic life, Bill is a past Chair of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, past President of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, former Board Member of Bet Tzedek Legal Services, and a former candidate for the California Assembly.
A nearly century-old legal precedent underpinning the independence of non-partisan federal agencies is under direct assault by President Trump, with an assist from his hand-picked Supreme Court majority. The barrage includes an unprecedented frontal attack on the grandaddy of independent agencies, the Federal Reserve Board, the nation's monetary policy-setter and protector of its economic health.
In 1935, the Supreme Court decided Humphrey's Executor...
For only $95 a month (the price of 2 article purchases)
Receive unlimited article access and full access to our archives,
Daily Appellate Report, award winning columns, and our
Verdicts and Settlements.
Or
$795 for an entire year!
Or access this article for $45
(Purchase provides 7-day access to this article. Printing, posting or downloading is not allowed.)
Already a subscriber?
Sign In