Week 23: The Fourth Branch Falls

Published Saturday, June 6, 2026 — this week on The Common Thread, Max and Blake trace how a single constitutional question about executive power is running through nearly every major case at the Supreme Court right now. - Humphrey's Executor and Trump v. Slaughter: The 1935 precedent that created independent agency protections is on the verge of being overturned, with all six conservative justices signaling support for broader presidential removal power. - The buried reinstatement question: Beyond who can be fired, the Court may rule that wrongly removed officials are owed back pay — not their jobs back, a structural change any future president inherits. - Tariffs, birthright citizenship, and agency independence: Three seemingly separate fights are expressions of one originalist constitutional framework with real consequences for limited government and free markets. - Federal Reserve vulnerability: Legal scholars argue there is no principled carve-out protecting the Fed once Humphrey's Executor falls. Max and Blake close with a concrete local action item: match your life to the agency that regulates it, then track your senators' confirmation votes before the rulings drop. New episodes every Saturday.