Humphrey's Executor v. United States

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Humphrey's Executor v. United States

Argued May 1, 1935
Decided May 27, 1935

Full case name:	Rathbun, Executor, v. United States

Citations:	295 U.S. 602; 295 U.S. 602; 55 S. Ct. 869; 79 L. Ed. 1611; 1935 U.S. LEXIS 1089

Holding

The Court held that provisions of section 1 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, stating that 'any commissioner may be removed by the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,' restrict the power of the President to remove a commissioner except upon one or more of the causes named. The Court also held such a restriction or limitation is valid under the Constitution of the United States.

Court membership

Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes
Associate Justices: Willis Van Devanter, James Clark McReynolds, Louis Brandeis, George Sutherland, Pierce Butler, Harlan Fiske Stone, Owen Josephus Roberts, Benjamin N. Cardozo

Case opinions

Majority by: Sutherland

Laws applied

U.S. Const. art. I; U.S. Const. art. II; Federal Trade Commission Act

Humphrey's Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), was a United States Supreme Court case that took place during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt presidency. Roosevelt tried to use his presidential power for hiring and firing to fire Humphrey, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, for not supporting the New Deal vigorously enough, but not because of any actual bad work he was doing. Roosevelt wrote Humphrey asking him to resign twice from his office, requests to which Humphrey did not yield. The President's third letter read, "Effective as of this date you are hereby removed from the office of Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission." Humphrey continued to come to work even after he was formally fired.

The case went to the Supreme Court but, before the case could be decided, Humphrey died and the case went to his executors. The Court distinguished between executive officers and quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial officers. The former serve at the pleasure of the President and may be removed at his discretion. The latter may be removed only with procedures consistent with statutory conditions enacted by Congress. The decision by the Court was that the Federal Trade Commission was a quasi-legislative body because of other powers it had, and therefore the President could not fire its chair.

U.S. Attorney General Robert H. Jackson, later to join the Supreme Court himself, said in his memoirs that Roosevelt was particularly annoyed by the Court's decision, as the President felt that it had been rendered for spite.