The Unitarian Executive: What Overturning Humphrey's Executor Means for Civil Service Independence
Project 2025 calls for overturning Humphrey's Executor, the 1935 precedent protecting independent agency officials from at-will removal. The plan would enable politicization of inspectors general, commissioners, and career officials, undermining congressional oversight and neutral competence, as seen in the recent mass firings of inspectors general.
Project 2025's blueprint seeks to dismantle the 1935 Humphrey's Executor precedent, which shields independent agency officials—like FTC, SEC, and NLRB members—from at-will presidential dismissal. The Brennan Center for Justice warns that such a move would 'usurp Congress's power to appropriate federal funds' and 'threaten the judiciary's authority to check presidential overreach' (source: Brennan Center for Justice, 'Fighting Abuse of Executive Power,' no URL in bundle). Protect Democracy's Authoritarian Playbook identifies this as a 'usurpation of congressional power' akin to the Iran-Contra affair, where the executive subverted legislative restrictions (source: Protect Democracy, 'Authoritarian Playbook,' no URL in bundle). The current administration has already mass-fired inspectors general, an action a post-Humphrey doctrine would retroactively legitimize.
A democratically accountable alternative would codify removal protections for agency heads and inspectors general via statute, requiring 'for cause' removal and bipartisan Senate confirmation. This would preserve Congress's Article I oversight role and the professional independence of the civil service.
The humanitarian alternative
Congress should codify the core holding of Humphrey's Executor into statute: that independent agencies serve at the pleasure of the president only for cause, and that their commissioners and board members can be removed only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance. This would preserve the constitutional separation of powers while maintaining the expertise and stability that independent agencies provide. A bipartisan bill could also clarify the standard for 'good cause' removal to prevent political abuse, and require the president to submit any removal to a Senate confirmation vote within 30 days.
Falsifiable predictions
What this entry claims will happen, and what data would prove it wrong. The Reckoner revisits these against current reality.
- The Supreme Court will overturn or significantly narrow Humphrey's Executor within the next two terms, giving the president unfettered removal power over all executive branch officers.
- Within 12 months of a ruling overturning Humphrey's Executor, the immediate firings will target chairs or members of the FTC, NLRB, FCC, and SEC.
Original source — excerpted
news John Roberts fought for decades to overturn Humphrey’s Executor"For more than 40 years, since his service as a young Reagan administration lawyer, Chief Justice John Roberts has pressed for an exceptionally powerful US presi..."