Executive Power

Every President from 1921 to 1933 successfully defended presidential removal power at will.

Steven Calabresi | 1.8.2026 10:59 AM

In two previous blog posts, I argued that every President from 1881 to 1921 had successfully defended the President's power to remove at will all officers exercising executive power and that no independent agencies in the modern sense of the term had been created between 1881 and 1921. In this blog post, I will argue that every President from 1921 to 1933 also successfully defended presidential removal power at will over all executive officers and that no independent agencies in the modern sense of the term were created between 1921 and 1933 prior to Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935). My argument grows out of my co-authored book with Professor Christopher Yoo, who deserves all the credit and none of the blame for anything in this blog post. Steven G. Calabresi & Christopher S. Yoo, The Unitary Executive: Presidential Power from Washington to Bush (Yale University Press 2008).

Warren G. Harding served as President of the United States from 1921 to 1923. As President, Harding vigorously asserted his power over the entities that became independent after the decision in Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935). As Christopher Yoo and I wrote, "Harding communicated his administration's policy agenda to members of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and the Shipping Board requiring commissioners to submit their undated resignations before receiving their appointments, ignoring the statutory provisions [that might have been read as limiting presidential removal power], and threatening to remove Shipping Board members who disagreed with his policies. Even more important were his efforts to reconstitute … agencies with commissioners more in tune with his pro-business orientation. Harding made a number of transformative appointments to the ICC, the Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. Tariff Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission that effectively brought the regulatory policy of the Progressive Era to an end." Calabresi & Yoo, at 262.

Harding endorsed an executive branch reorganization proposal that "recommended that the independent agencies be consolidated into the executive department." Id. Although this plan failed, Harding succeeded in creating a Bureau of the Budget—a plan initiated by Taft and then supported by Woodrow Wilson. "Under the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, 'the Bureau of the Budget was part of the executive branch, reporting to the president. The budget director was not to take instruction from cabinet officers but only from the president, which gave the director the authority to plan a responsible budget without constant interference.' The impact on the president's ability to control his administration was palpable and immediate. Under the leadership of the very able Charles Dawes, the Bureau of the........

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