Independent-Agency Dismantling

4 proceedings tracked · Active

Across 2025 and 2026, the administration fired the heads of the FTC, CFPB, NLRB, and ultimately the Federal Reserve Board. Bryan covers every stage: what for-cause protection means, why Humphrey's Executor matters, and why the Federal Reserve became the case that forced conservative justices to confront their own prior reasoning.

Agency Removal Fights

Cook v. Trump (D.C. Circuit)

25-5326 · D.C. Cir. · 2025

The D.C. Circuit refused to allow President Trump to fire Federal Reserve Board member Dr. Lisa Cook. Bryan called it one of the first rulings where a court sided with a plaintiff against the president on a removal fight.

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Agency Removal Fights

Trump v. Cook (SCOTUS Application)

25A312 · U.S. Supreme Court · 2025

The administration sought a stay at SCOTUS to allow the firing to proceed. The Court blocked the firing pending further briefing. Bryan: 'This is the first one I can think of, at least in a while, where the Supreme Court has sided with the plaintiff against the president on one of these days.'

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Agency Removal Fights

National Treasury Employees Union v. Vought

1:25-cv-00381 · D.D.C. · 2025

Challenge to CFPB dismantling, including efforts to cut off the Bureau's Federal Reserve funding pipeline. Courts ordered restoration of fund transfers. Bryan covered this as the clearest case: even critics of the CFPB had used the Fed as the example of what should survive removal fights.

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Agency Removal Fights

Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935)

295 U.S. 602 · U.S. Supreme Court · 1935

The foundational 1935 precedent protecting multi-member independent commissions from arbitrary presidential firing. Bryan treats it as the legal bedrock the administration is trying to erode case by case, beginning with softer targets before moving to the Federal Reserve.

historical