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In last night's Newswatch, Gabe wrote about McCain saying he wanted to fire the SEC Chair Chris Cox.
Now, if you'd taken out your Constitution on Wednesday for Constitution Day, and reviewed that "separation of powers" thing, you'd know that no U.S. President can fire the head of an agency. It doesn't work that way. The President makes the nomination, the Congress confirms, and only in the case of gross malfeasance can there be a removal process. "Firing" by the President is not an option. FDR learned this back in the 30's, when his desire to remove a Commission head went to the Supreme Court.
UPDATE - OOPS - another error on my part. I thought John said "SEC" (which would have been correct) but he actually said "FEC" which is not.
tmess2 70p · 860 weeks ago
The Constitutional history is that for a period it was unclear whether statutes that protected these independent agencies from having their heads fired by the President were constitutional. Ultimately, the Supreme Court did decide to uphold these statutes.
DocJess 71p · 860 weeks ago
tmess2 70p · 860 weeks ago
oliver.bassett · 860 weeks ago