The U.S. Supreme Court has faced growing calls in recent weeks to overturn a nearly 90-year-old precedent establishing the validity of independent multimember agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission. The maker of an infant lounge sleeper became the latest litigant to ask the court to overturn its 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which upheld job protections for members of the FTC and, by extension, many other federal agencies across the government.
After the court’s June ruling overturning 40 years of deference to regulatory agencies, the “Humphrey’s Executor” precedent has emerged as public enemy No. 1 of the anti-administrativist legal movement. For a detailed report, see more here.