EPISODE · Mar 6, 2025 · 58 MIN
You’re Fired! Trump, Tenure Protection, and the Future of Humphrey’s Executor
from FedSoc Forums · host The Federalist Society
The recent flurry of firings in the federal government has sparked new questions surrounding the president’s removal power and its limits. Several lawsuits have now been filed over precisely these questions. These suits could bring an old case back to the forefront—Humphrey's Executor v. United States—in which the Supreme Court ruled that the president cannot constitutionally remove an FTC Commissioner without "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office," as ordered in the FTC Act. Solicitor General Sarah M. Harris has recently advised the Committee on the Judiciary that these “for-cause removal provisions [...] are unconstitutional and that the Department [of Justice] will no longer defend their constitutionality.”Will this ruling stand, and should it? Is it true that, as the Court reasoned in 1935, the Constitution does not confer an "illimitable power of removal" on the President? Join this FedSoc Forum to discuss these questions and more.Featuring:Prof. Jonathan Adler, Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and Director, Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law, Case Western Reserve University School of LawDr. Dan Epstein, Assistant Professor of Law, St. Thomas University College of LawProf. Victoria Nourse, Ralph V. Whitworth Professor in Law, Georgetown University Law CenterWill Yeatman, Senior Legal Fellow, Pacific Legal FoundationModerator: Elizabeth Slattery, Director of Constitutional Scholarship, Pacific Legal Foundation--To register, click the link above.
What this episode covers
The recent flurry of firings in the federal government has sparked new questions surrounding the president’s removal power and its limits. Several lawsuits have now been filed over precisely these questions. These suits could bring an old case back to the forefront—Humphrey's Executor v. United States—in which the Supreme Court ruled that the president cannot constitutionally remove an FTC Commissioner without "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office," as ordered in the FTC Act. Solicitor General Sarah M. Harris has recently advised the Committee on the Judiciary that these “for-cause removal provisions [...] are unconstitutional and that the Department [of Justice] will no longer defend their constitutionality.”Will this ruling stand, and should it? Is it true that, as the Court reasoned in 1935, the Constitution does not confer an "illimitable power of removal" on the President? Join this FedSoc Forum to discuss these questions and more.Featuring:Prof. Jonathan Adler, Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and Director, Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law, Case Western Reserve University School of LawDr. Dan Epstein, Assistant Professor of Law, St. Thomas University College of LawProf. Victoria Nourse, Ralph V. Whitworth Professor in Law, Georgetown University Law CenterWill Yeatman, Senior Legal Fellow, Pacific Legal FoundationModerator: Elizabeth Slattery, Director of Constitutional Scholarship, Pacific Legal Foundation--To register, click the link above.
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You’re Fired! Trump, Tenure Protection, and the Future of Humphrey’s Executor
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