Carol Platt Liebau: A Blow to the Unelected Ruling Class

In Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court has issued one of the most important administrative law decisions in years. It overrules a famous precedent called Humphrey’s Executor, which had protected some independent agency commissioners from being fired by the president. President Trump removed two members of Federal Trade Commission over policy disagreements. But federal law says commissioners can be fired only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or misconduct. So the fired commissioners sued. The Supreme Court held that the statutory limits on presidential removal violate the Constitution’s separation of powers. And the Court was right. If public officials exercise executive power but answer to no elected president on matters of policy, they’re no longer accountable to the voters. That creates an unelected governing class — an oligarchy, really — that’s protected by law. And that’s fundamentally un-American. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.