Law Matters - Episode 30

In Episode 30, attorneys Kutzer and Olson review an important issue before the United States Supreme Court. The case concerns the Separation of Powers doctrine and the authority of the President, as chief executive, to appoint and remove federal agency officials, specifically, and in the case discussed, to remove a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission.

The two attorneys review the travel of the case and how and why it reached the Supreme Court, and explain why the President’s Article II power of appointment inherently includes the power of removal. Attorneys Kutzer and Olson also discuss the impact of the 1935 Humphrey’s Executor case relative to the Separation of Powers doctrine, and describe the birth of the administrative state and its dangerous consequences when bureaucrats wield uncontrollable power.

Listen and learn what an emergency stay means, how a district court erred in its judgment in the first place, and why Congress exceeded its authority when it approved the FTC Act of 1914 without striking the removal provision of the bill before passage, knowing that the legislative branch cannot statutorily limit the executive’s inherent powers as stipulated in the supreme law of the land – the US Constitution. The case discussed is Trump v Rebecca Slaughter.