Cass R. Sunstein, Columnist

Supreme Court Should Mend, Not End, Independent Agencies

Here’s how to give presidents just a little more power over the heads of departments like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Fed.

March 3, 2020 at 5:02 PM UTC

By Cass R. Sunstein

Cass R. Sunstein is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the author of “The Cost-Benefit Revolution” and a co-author of “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness.”

Keep it legal.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in the most important separation-of-powers case in several decades.

The central issue is simple: Did Congress violate the Constitution in making the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau independent of the president when it created that agency in 2009? Under the law as it now stands, the president can fire the bureau’s director only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”