A divided Supreme Court on Monday put the brakes on Congress’ attempt to limit the president’s power to remove executive branch officials in a win for President Trump.
The justices ruled, 5-4, that the Constitution requires the president have unfettered discretion to fire the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
However, the high court rejected arguments that the entire agency should be shut down.
All of the Republican appointees on the high court backed the decision eliminating the restrictions on the firing of leaders of so-called single-member agencies, while all the Democrat-appointed justices said they would have left those limitations in place.
The board was the brainchild of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren before her days in elected office, and enacted into law by Congress in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse.
The White House hailed the ruling.
“Today’s decision represents an important victory for the fundamental principle that government officials should be accountable to the American people,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.
“Today’s decision helps restore to Americans power over their government that the Dodd-Frank Act took away to protect entrenched and unelected bureaucrats in Washington,” she said, referring to the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a series of federal regulations passed in an attempt to prevent a future financial crisis after the economic collapse of 2008.