MYERS V. UNITED STATES

(1926), U.S. Supreme Court case that voided a legislative provision restricting the authority of the president to remove or replace certain postmasters without consent of the Senate. In the majority opinion, written by Chief Justice William H. Taft, the court held that the provision was an unconstitutional restriction on the president's power to exercise control over executive personnel under Article II of the Constitution. The president, wrote Justice Taft, should select those who were to act for him under his direction in the execution of the laws. Taft added that as his selection of administrative officers is essential to the execution of the laws by him, so must be his power of removing those for whom he can not continue to be responsible. . . . Nine years later, however, the court held in Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935) that the president could not remove a member of an independent regulatory agency in defiance of restrictions provided by law. The court held in that case that the Myers principle applied only to purely executive officers. The Humphrey's decision was reaffirmed in Wiener v. United States (1958), involving the attempted removal of a member of the War Claims Commission.