Another case involved President Woodrow Wilson, who fired US Postmaster for Portland Frank Myers, which went against a statute that required Senate approval for a postmaster to be fired. Katkin said the Supreme Court sustained the firing, saying the statute’s limitation on presidential removal power interfered unconstitutionally with the president’s duty to, “take care that the laws are faithfully executed.
However, the case that could be invoked if Powell is fired involved President Franklin Roosevelt. He fired Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioner William Humphrey without cause, which violated the Federal Trade Commission Act.
“In Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), the Court drew a distinction between ‘executive’ officers like the secretary of war or a postmaster, who could be fired by the President under the Myers precedent, versus ‘quasi-legislative’ or ‘quasi-judicial’ officers of multi-member ‘independent’ federal agencies like the Federal Trade Commission,” Katkin said. “The Court held that the latter may be removed only with procedures consistent with statutory conditions enacted by Congress. Thus, the President could not fire a member of a multi-member ‘independent’ board or commission solely for political reasons.”
Katkin said that since the Federal Reserve is a multi-member “independent” board, it falls under the Humphrey’s Executor rule rather than being part of the president’s administration which would fall under the Myers rule.
“Therefore, firing chairman Powell for political or policy reasons would not be legal unless the (Supreme) Court overrules Humphrey’s Executor,” Katkin said.