Advancing American Freedom Defends Separation of Powers, Calls for Overturn of Humphrey’s Executor (1935)
Advancing American Freedom led an amicus brief with over 30 other amici in Secretary of Labor v. KC Transport, a case in which the Mine Safety and Health Board and the Secretary of Labor, both agencies of the Executive Branch, disagreed over the definition of the word “mine” in a statute. The Secretary of Labor brought suit in federal court to resolve this dispute. However, the proper authority belongs to the President of the United States, not unelected bureaucrats.
“Article II vests “the ‘executive Power’” — all of it — in “a President of the United States,” said AAF General Counsel J. Marc Wheat. “The Founders knew that the legislative powers like the power to tax) demand deliberation and consensus, while the executive power depends on decisiveness and energy. Yet, for 90 years, Congress has been allowed to protect certain bureaucrats from presidential removal and thus create division within the Executive Branch; it is time to overturn the New Deal-era decision Humphrey’s Executor (1935). We urge the D.C. Circuit to protect the constitutionally intended separation of powers and rule for KC Transport.”
