WASHINGTON: The US President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is trying to overturn a landmark Supreme Court case in a bid to give the president greater control over independent agencies.
In a move that could give Trump greater authority to dismiss officials who refuse to enforce his policies, the acting US solicitor general sent a letter to Illinois Democratic Sen Dick Durbin on Wednesday, Fox News reported on Monday.
The letter informed him of the Justice Department’s intention to petition the Supreme Court to overturn a key precedent that currently restricts the president’s ability to remove members of independent agency members.
The letter, written by Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris, says the DOJ has determined “that certain for-cause removal provisions” that apply to certain administrative agency members are unconstitutional, and the department would “no longer defend their constitutionality.”
The case in question, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, is a 1935 Supreme Court case that restricted the president’s constitutional authority to remove officials from the executive branch.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Durbin described the letter as a “stunning reversal of the Justice Department’s long-standing position under both Republican and Democratic presidents.”
He further commented that the request was “not surprising coming from an administration that prioritises wealthy special interests over the American people.”
However, conservative legal theorists supported the Trump administration’s move, saying that it would move the federal government closer to the original intent of the Constitution’s framers.
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Trump notably framed his presidential campaign against former President Joe Biden as a battle between the “deep state” and democracy, stating, “Either we have a deep state or we have a democracy. We’re going to have one or the other, and we’re at the tipping point.”
“Congress makes the laws, it’s the president’s duty to carry out and enforce those laws under the unitary executive theory,” Hans von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital.
“That means that the president since he’s the head of the executive branch, has complete control over the executive branch, and that includes the hiring and firing of everyone in the executive branch, most particularly, and most importantly, the heads of all the different offices and departments within the executive branch.”
Earlier this month, a former NLRB member sued Trump over her termination, adding that federal law protects her from being arbitrarily dismissed. The Trump administration has also faced multiple lawsuits related to the dismissal of federal employees.
