Free Enterprise Fund and Beckstead and Watts, LLP v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board et al. (561 U.S. 477)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 28, 2010 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 561 U.S. 477 · 130 S. Ct. 3138
- Decided
- June 28, 2010
- Term
- October Term 2009
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- Miscellaneous
- Disposition
- Affirmed and reversed (or vacated) in part and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- Federal law held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court. Our Constitution divided the “powers of the new Federal Government into three defined categories, Legislative, Executive, and Judicial.” INS v. Chadha, 462 U. S. 919, 951 (1983). Article II vests “[t]he executive Power... in a President of the United States of America,” who must “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” Art. II, § 1, cl. 1; id., § 3. In light of “[t]he impossibility that one man should be able to perform all the great business of the State,” the Constitution provides for executive officers to “assist the supreme Magistrate in discharging the duties of his trust.” 30 Writings of George Washington 334 (J. Fitzpatrick ed. 1939). Since 1789, the Constitution has been understood to empower the President to keep these officers accountable — by removing them from office, if necessary. See generally Myers v. United States, 272 U. S. 52 (1926). This Court has determined, however, that this authority is not without limit. In Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U. S. 602 (1935), we held that Congress can, under certain circumstances, create independent agencies run by principal officers appointed by the President, whom the President may not remove at will but only for good cause. Likewise, in United States v. Perkins, 116 U. S. 483 (1886), and Morrison v. Olson, 487 U. S. 654 (1988), the Court…
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