Opinion of the Court in Trump v. Slaughter
Presidents Can Fire Independent Commissioners Without Cause
Nearly 250 years ago, the framers decided to vest “the executive power” in one person — “a president of the United States of America.” One hundred years ago, this court honored the convention’s choice in the seminal case of Myers v. United States (1926). There, we held that the Constitution “grants to the president” the “general administrative control of those executing the laws, including the power of appointment and removal of executive officers.” Because no one could “execute the laws … alone and unaided,” Chief Justice William Howard Taft explained for the court, the president must be permitted to “select…
