In the recent ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, SCOTUS handed the president new power to remove independent agency commissioners like the FTC and NRC without cause.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent, joined by Kagan and Jackson, names the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) directly as one of the agencies losing its independence as a result. “For most of this Nation’s history, Congress and the President together have decided that some Government functions should operate at a distance from partisan politics. Those include the management of nuclear energy; the security of the monetary supply; and the safety of American workplaces, consumer products, and chemical hazards.” “Dozens of independent commissions are now likely to become purely executive agencies, shifting tremendous power over broad swaths of American life into the President’s hands: the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, with responsibility for managing the Nation’s energy supply… the Chemical Safety Board, tasked with investigating chemical disasters… the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, responsible for the regulation of nuclear power… and the Merit Systems Protection Board.” “the Court gives the President a power unknown even to the English Crown against which the Founders revolted, elevating him above his once-coequal branches by transforming a duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed into a license to act in defiance of those very laws.” “with the most extreme exercises of at-will removal, the multimember structure itself could be eliminated, by executive fiat, with sufficient arbitrary firings to winnow a commission down to a sole remaining chair.” “Ordinary Americans and regulated firms alike have organized their affairs understanding that some Government decisions will depend not on political favoritism or partisan advantage… but on expertise, adherence to law, judgment, and the public good.” “In granting the President this unbridled authority, the Court upends its precedent, misconstrues our history, and sheds any pretense of judicial modesty. I respectfully dissent.” Full opinion: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-332_qn12.pdf These quotes are formatted as an image here:
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Carlsbad, California USA
Author, The Code Killers:
An Expose of the Nuclear Industry
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