Trump v. Slaughter · ¶218

The majority thus has very little support in text, history, or precedent. What it does have is a theory. As the majority sees things, “the buck stops” with the President, ante, at 4, who holds all executive power and thus can be “‘blame[d]’” or held “‘responsib[le]’” for all executive conduct, ante, at 1–2. Yet the President cannot “execute the laws alone and unaided.” Ante, at 4. To ensure that the President can carry out his job and remain responsible for all exercises of executive power, the majority says, his inferiors must “remain accountable to [him].” Ibid. The only way for that accountability to exist, according to the majority, is for “those officers [to] be removable by the President” at will, for any reason or no reason at all. Ibid.

slip opinion, revised 7/07/26
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