Trump v. Slaughter · ¶143

The Court today takes a notable step back toward the Constitution. By recognizing that the President is entitled to remove a principal officer who exercises executive power in his name, the Court does much to vindicate what Franklin D. Roosevelt and James Madison both understood: Under our Constitution, executive power does not belong to a “headless ‘fourth branch,’” Roosevelt Committee 36, but must be exercised through a “chain of dependence” running from “the lowest officers” to “the President,” and from him to the American people, 1 Annals of Cong. 499 (J. Madison).

slip opinion, revised 7/07/26
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