Foreword
For nearly 140 years, Congress has created independent commissions within the executive branch designed to be insulated from partisan control. The Interstate Commerce Commission was the first, but now there are 32 similar agencies, including the Federal Election Commission, Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. These agencies typically have multimember panels of administrators with staggered terms; requirements that their seats be divided between the two political parties; and provisions that a president can only remove them early in cases of “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” In 1935, the Supreme…
