On matters of statutory interpretation, Stephen Breyer competes with Sonia Sotomayor for the dubious distinction of being the most freewheeling, least textualist justice on the Court. So when Breyer yesterday wrote a straightforward unanimous opinion (in AMG Capital Management v. FTC) holding that the Federal Trade Commission did not have authority to seek monetary relief under a statutory provision that authorized it to seek a “permanent injunction,” you might think that FTC officials would be chastened to be told that they had been abusing their power.

But FTC acting chair Rebecca Kelly Slaughter certainly wasn’t chastened. Yesterday Slaughter instead issued a statement charging that the Court “ruled in favor of scam artists and dishonest corporations” and making no mention of the statutory text.

In modest defense of Slaughter, perhaps it would be too much to expect that someone who graduated from Yale law school, worked as chief counsel to Senator Chuck Schumer, and boasts of her “progressive vision,” would concern herself with legal niceties like statutory authority. But her blatant contempt for limits on her power ought to disqualify her from governmental service.