Sotomayor warns expansion of presidential firing power will ‘unleash only chaos’

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ustice Sonia Sotomayor delivered a sharp dissent from the bench on Monday after the court overturned a nearly century-old precedent on presidential firing power, arguing the majority’s decision grants President Trump and future presidents “unbridled authority” that undermines the separation of powers.

“Put simply, today the majority reshapes our Government,” Sotomayor wrote in a 49-page dissent joined by fellow liberal Justices Elana Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

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“Dozens of independent commissions are now likely to become purely executive agencies, shifting tremendous power over broad swaths of American life into the President’s hands,” she added.

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“Nothing in the text, history, or values of the Constitution shows that Humphrey’s was wrong or that FTC Commissioners cannot enjoy for-cause removal protection,” Sotomayor wrote. “Yet even if the majority were right about all of that, it still would not be enough to justify today’s destabilizing decision.”

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