It sounds like someone's been hitting the Wall Street journal op-ed pipe a little too hard. A district court judge conducting a bench trial is there to make a judgment call based on the facts of a particular case, they do not have the authority to determine "the purpose of her agency" or what she has and hasn't "been appointed to carry out". As a principled judicial supremacist, I'm sure you'll revise your understanding of the FTC's authority should they win their appeal in the Microsoft case, right?