WASHINGTON >> Two Democratic former members of the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued President Donald Trump over his decision to fire them from the agency, accusing him of an illegal overreach of executive power.

Trump fired the Democratic commissioners, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, on March 18, upending the consumer protection agency, which is typically run by three members from the president’s party and two members from the opposing party.

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, lawyers for Slaughter and Bedoya argued that Trump’s dismissals of them were without cause and violated federal law. They cited a 1935 Supreme Court precedent that said the president may not fire independent regulatory boards members solely over policy disagreements.

“In short, it is bedrock, binding precedent that a president cannot remove an FTC commissioner without cause,” the lawsuit said. “The president’s action is indefensible under governing law.”The White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, previously said that “President Trump has the lawful authority to manage personnel within the executive branch.”

Slaughter and Bedoya’s lawsuit also named the two Republican FTC commissioners — its chair, Andrew Ferguson, and Melissa Holyoak — as defendants. They also named the agency’s executive director, David B. Robbins.

The 1914 law that established the FTC says that commissioners can be removed from the five-member board for “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” The Supreme Court reinforced those protections in the 1930s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to fire a member of the FTC.

In a letter sent on behalf of Trump last week informing one of the commissioners of the termination, the White House said the protections established by the Supreme Court’s ruling didn’t apply to those who lead the FTC today.

Ferguson said in a statement last week that he had “no doubts” about the president’s constitutional authority to remove his colleagues. The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, lawyers for Slaughter and Bedoya said the two have been “denied access to their offices” and were now listed as former members of the commission on the FTC’s website. Their staff members have also been put on administration leave, according to the lawsuit.