Trump v. Slaughter · ¶36

The third group emerged victorious. They successfully convinced the House of Representatives to delete a clause in the draft bill that said that the Secretary of Foreign Affairs was “to be removable by the President,” for such language would “ha[ve] the appearance of conferring the power upon him” when in fact it was his all along. Id., at 505, 507 (Rep. Benson). What they favored instead—and what they got—was a new clause that assumed “the power of removal to be in the President,” so as to “establish a legislative construction of the Constitution.” Id., at 578 (Rep. Benson). The bill as amended passed the House, and then the Senate, a feat that was repeated first with laws establishing the Department of War and then again with the Treasury. These statutes thus “implicitly endorsed the view that the President had a constitutional power to remove executive officers.” A. Bamzai & S.…

slip opinion, revised 7/07/26
Source edition
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.