It is a sign of the times that the Supreme Court might have just used its emergency docket to all but overrule an important precedent limiting executive power. That precedent is Humphrey’s Executor, a New Deal-era case establishing the constitutionality of independent agencies.

In a surprising twist, its decision to do so was both predictable and reasonable.

The cases before the court were Trump v. Wilcox and Harris v. Bessent, which concern the president’s power to fire members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board without showing just cause to do so. Because these boards were created by Congress as independent agencies, the cases will ultimately test whether Congress can create such agencies or whether the unitary executive theory instead requires them to be under complete presidential control.

Read more at The New York Times