Document Type
Article
Publication Title
University of Chicago Law Review Online
Publication Date
8-2020
ISSN
0041-9494
Page Number
37
Keywords
SEILA law, for-cause removal, Myers v. United States
Disciplines
Consumer Protection Law | Law | Supreme Court of the United States
Abstract
In "Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Board", the Supreme Court invalidated a statutory provision that protected the director of the Consumer Finance Protection Board (CFPB) from removal by the president except for "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office." Writing for the Court, Chief Justice John Roberts announced a new test for evaluating the constitutionality of "for cause" restrictions on presidential removal of high-level agency officials. Under this test, the Court asks whether the removal restriction applies to an official who is the head of a "single-head agency" or to the officials who collectively lead a "multimember expert agency," prohibiting the former and permitting the latter. This test is remarkable both because it changes the law and because of "how" it changes the law: it lets the structure of the agency determine the degree of presidential control over its principal officers.
Recommended Citation
Lisa Bressman,
What SEILA Law Says about Chief Justice Roberts' View of the Administrative State University of Chicago Law Review Online. 37
(2020)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/1161