Humphrey's Executor v. United States

Decided May 27, 1935

Facts of the case

President Hoover appointed, and the Senate confirmed, Humphrey as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In 1933, President Roosevelt asked for Humphrey's resignation since the latter was a
conservative and had jurisdiction over many of Roosevelt's New Deal
policies. When Humphrey refused to resign, Roosevelt fired him because
of his policy positions. However, the FTC Act only allowed a president
to remove a commissioner for "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or
malfeasance in office." Since Humphrey died shortly after being
dismissed, his executor sued to recover Humphrey's lost salary.

Question
Did section 1 of the Federal Trade Commission Act unconstitutionally
interfere with the executive power of the President?

Conclusion
The unanimous Court found that the FTC Act was constitutional and that Humphrey's dismissal on policy grounds was unjustified. The Court
reasoned that the Constitution had never given "illimitable power of
removal" to the president. Justice Sutherland dismissed the
government's main line of defense in this case which relied heavily on
the Court's decision in Myers v. United States (1926). In that case
the Court upheld the president's right to remove officers who were
"units of the executive department." The FTC was different, argued
Sutherland, because it was a body created by Congress to perform quasi-legislative and judicial functions. The Myers precedent,
therefore, did not apply in this situation.

https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/295us602

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'Unitary executive' theory may reach Supreme Court as Trump wields
sweeping power
...
...
Summary

"Unitary executive" theory was formulated in the 1980s
Trump asserts sweeping control over US executive branch
His firing of Democratic NLRB member may be a test case

...
Trump's firing of a member of the National Labor Relations Board, an independent executive branch agency created by Congress, may test the willingness of the nation's top judicial body to embrace the robust
view of the theory that Trump's administration is expected to present.
And the nine justices could be asked to overturn a 90-year-old Supreme
Court precedent that limits a president's ability to dismiss certain
agency heads.
...
...
Wilcox has argued in a lawsuit that her removal violated a federal law
that allows a president to oust a board member only for neglect of
duty or malfeasance in office. Wilcox's lawsuit cited the Supreme
Court's 1935 ruling in a case called Humphrey's Executor v. United
States.

That ruling involved a conservative-majority Supreme Court restraining
the actions of a Democratic president, Franklin Roosevelt. It decided
that a president does not have unfettered power to remove
commissioners of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission after Roosevelt
fired an FTC commissioner over policy differences.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/unitary-executive-theory-may-reach-supreme-court-trump-wields-sweeping-power-2025-02-14/

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