The White House cited a little-known Supreme Court case to justify its overhaul of the National Science Board, a key advisory body that oversees the National Science Foundation. The Trump administration fired every member of the board Friday.
The case in question — U.S. v. Arthrex, which was decided in 2021 — raises “constitutional questions about whether non-Senate confirmed appointees can exercise the authorities that Congress gave the National Science Board,” a White House spokesperson told POLITICO’s E&E News in a statement.
The court in that case reviewed the authority of administrative patent judges, who are nominated by the president but not confirmed by the Senate, to make binding decisions about patent law. It did not involve the National Science Foundation.
The Supreme Court ruled that “officials with binding authority are typically principal officers” who are approved by the Senate, said Anne Joseph O’Connell, a Stanford University law professor, in an email. The court also ruled that the non-Senate confirmed patent judges could continue making decisions, but that the Senate-confirmed director of the Patent and Trademark Office “had to have power to reverse them,” she added.
