The President's constitutional duty to execute the law does

not give him the power to violate that law with impunity.

But petitioners claim that the President was free to fire Commissioner Slaughter without cause in violation of the FTC Act as authoritatively construed by this Court.

And, they urge, even if that firing was illegal, there is nothing that any Court anywhere at any time could do to remedy that violation.

The district court correctly rejected both arguments, and its judgment should be affirmed.

On the merits, multi-member commissions with members enjoying some kind of removal protection have been part of our story since 1790.

So if petitioners are right, all three branches of government have been wrong from the start.

What have the historians been telling us more recently about that sort of early understanding of the history? And, you know, like bring us up to date here a little bit about where the history is with respect to these issues.

The president's constitutional duty to execute the law

does not give him the power to violate that law with impunity.

But petitioners claim that the president was free to fire Commissioner Slaughter without cause in violation of the FTC Act as authoritatively construed by this court.

And, they urge, even if that firing was illegal, there is nothing that any court anywhere at any time could do to remedy that violation.

The district court correctly rejected both arguments.

and its judgment should be affirmed.

On the merits, multi-member commissions with members enjoying some kind of removal protection have been part of our story since 1790.

You know, when I was a young lawyer and this unitary executive theory really got its start and got its legs, there was a pretty simple version of the history, and that drove a lot of the early discussion of the unitary executive, what was wrong with Humphrey's executor, What have the historians been telling us more recently about that sort of early understanding of the history? And bring us up to date here a little bit about where the history is with respect to these issues.