Rebecca Kelly Slaughter

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter served as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission from 2018 to 2025, including as Acting Chairwoman in 2021. Appointed by President Trump and reappointed by President Biden, the Senate confirmed her unanimously both times. Her work at the Commission spanned competition, consumer protection, and data privacy in industries across the economy, and she led U.S. delegations to the G7 privacy and competition agencies, the Global Privacy Assembly, and the OECD. After President Trump removed her from the Commission without cause, she sued for reinstatement; the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against her in Trump v. Slaughter (2026), overturning 91 years of precedent on federal agency independence. Before her confirmation to the FTC, she was Chief Counsel to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, first on the Judiciary Committee and then when he became Democratic Leader. She began her career as a litigator at Sidley Austin. She is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, where she served on the Yale Law Journal.