At a Thursday press briefing, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Mark Christie said he wouldn’t comment on whether a landmark Supreme Court case establishing the independence of certain federal agencies reached the right conclusion.
The comments come two days after President Donald Trump fired two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission and a month after the Department of Justice sent a letter asserting that the president can remove commissioners on multimember independent commissions — like FTC and, presumably, FERC — at will.
The DOJ letter also called for overturning the 1935 Supreme Court case Humphrey’s Executor v. United States “to the extent that [it] requires otherwise.” In Humphrey’s, the court held that independent agencies created by Congress are not “units of the executive department,” so the president can only fire commissioners “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office” or other reasons as Congress provides.
Christie, who has previously said FERC decision-making will remain independent, was not prepared to comment on whether the case was good law.
