In Trump v. Slaughter, handed down at the end of June, the Supreme Court ruled that because the Federal Trade Commission exercises executive powers, the president has the power to fire the commissioners. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissenting, repeatedly cites Alexander Hamilton for the proposition that limits on the presidential removal power are constitutional.

On page 10, she accuses the majority of thinking it “knows better” than Hamilton (among others). On pages 15–16, she quotes Federalist No. 77, in which Hamilton says the consent of the Senate “would be necessary to displace as well as appoint” and adds, “A change of the Chief Magistrate, therefore, would not occasion so violent or so general a revolution in the officers of the........

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