CNN - President Donald Trump’s purge at independent agencies is putting a target on a nearly 100-year-old Supreme Court precedent that protects certain officials from the political whims of the White House.
Since taking office four weeks ago, Trump has rapidly fired a member of the National Labor Relations Board, two commissioners charged with enforcing civil rights laws in the workplace and, most recently, the top federal official who handles government workers’ whistleblower complaints.
Some of the officials Trump is targeting enjoy protections in federal law that bar their removal without cause. But many conservatives – including some who sit on the Supreme Court – have chafed at the idea that a president can’t fire people in the executive branch at will.
The litigation is almost certain to queue up a Supreme Court case challenging a key 1935 precedent, Humphrey’s Executor v. US, that allows Congress to require presidents to show cause – such as malfeasance – before dismissing board members overseeing independent agencies.
Overturning that ruling would give presidents immense power to sweep away from service officials who enforce anti-trust laws, labor rules and disclosure requirements for publicly traded companies.
“Over a four-year horizon, I think Humphrey’s Executor is
destined for the graveyard,” predicted Dan Wolff, who leads the
administrative law litigation practice at the Crowell & Moring law
firm. “I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying there’s likely a
majority ready to overturn Humphrey’s Executor in the right case.”
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