Trump v. Slaughter · ¶133

So, yes, those who exercise executive power must be ultimately answerable to the President and, through him, to the American people. But while electoral accountability is a good thing, it cannot be the only thing. And allowing Presidents to control not only executive functions, but also vast new reservoirs of legislative and judicial powers, risks inviting exactly what those who framed our Constitution feared: the “accumulation of all powers . . . in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective.” The Federalist No. 47, p. 324 (J. Cooke ed. 1961) (J. Madison) (emphasis added). No nation, after all, can expect happy results when “the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person”—or, one might add, when judicial powers are added to that union. Id., at 325 (internal quotation marks omitted).

slip opinion, revised 7/07/26
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