The Conservative Constitutional Revolution Is Gaining Speed

In a cavalier, under-reasoned two-page opinion, the Supreme Court announced its intention to overrule a century of precedent and roll back the existence of independent agencies, one of the linchpins of the modern administrative state. The president now has the authority to fire the head of any agency for virtually any reason — even when Congress has stipulated that such officials can only be dismissed for cause. While the court signaled that it would exempt the Federal Reserve from its new regime, we are witnessing a stunning conservative constitutional revolution. This shift undermines the foundational principle that certain government employees should be nonpartisan professionals hired for their expertise, not political loyalty.

The decision in Trump v. Wilcox did not follow the usual process of full briefing and oral argument — standard in even the most routine Supreme Court cases, let alone those that will be remembered as era-defining. Instead, it reached the justices through the court’s “emergency docket,” a fast-track process that takes place when parties seek urgent relief and the Supreme Court must decide whether emergency intervention is justified.