Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion in *Trump v. Slaughter* represents the culmination of a deliberate, 40-year effort to dismantle the constitutional validity of independent regulatory agencies. Dating back to his time as a young Reagan administration lawyer in 1983, when he explicitly labeled independent agencies a “constitutional anomaly”, and continuing through his jurist career, Roberts has systematically advanced the “unitary executive theory” (UET) to maximize presidential removal power.
Supported by a newly solidified conservative supermajority, Roberts successfully utilized strategic patience to completely overrule the 91-year-old Humphrey’s Executor precedent, achieving his long-held jurisprudential goal of subjecting the vast administrative state to direct, at-will presidential control.
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submissions statement:
Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion in *Trump v. Slaughter* represents the culmination of a deliberate, 40-year effort to dismantle the constitutional validity of independent regulatory agencies. Dating back to his time as a young Reagan administration lawyer in 1983, when he explicitly labeled independent agencies a “constitutional anomaly”, and continuing through his jurist career, Roberts has systematically advanced the “unitary executive theory” (UET) to maximize presidential removal power.
Supported by a newly solidified conservative supermajority, Roberts successfully utilized strategic patience to completely overrule the 91-year-old Humphrey’s Executor precedent, achieving his long-held jurisprudential goal of subjecting the vast administrative state to direct, at-will presidential control.