Congress designed the Fair Housing Finance Agency to be a politically independent entity empowered to create and enforce rules, while also overseeing operations at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and nursing them back to financial health.
But Congress also took away the president’s authority over an agency of the executive branch and that is what the court shut down.
While the government defended the agency’s constitutionality by relying on a long list of independent agencies that have withstood constitutional challenges before — including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Office of the Independent Counsel — the court found the Fair Housing Finance Agency’s “unique constellation of insulating features offends the Constitution’s separation of powers.”
How the hell can they operate entirely independent?
At the 5th Circuit’s direction, the district court will now have to strike the provision of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 that limits the president’s power to fire the Fair Housing Finance Agency director, thus “restoring executive branch oversight to the [agency].”
As a result, the president will soon be able to tell the agency’s director, “You’re fired.”
All of this @ Federal Court Hands Trump a Win, Rogue Agency Brought Under Tighter Control
But Congress also took away the president’s authority over an agency of the executive branch and that is what the court shut down.
While the government defended the agency’s constitutionality by relying on a long list of independent agencies that have withstood constitutional challenges before — including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Office of the Independent Counsel — the court found the Fair Housing Finance Agency’s “unique constellation of insulating features offends the Constitution’s separation of powers.”
How the hell can they operate entirely independent?
At the 5th Circuit’s direction, the district court will now have to strike the provision of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 that limits the president’s power to fire the Fair Housing Finance Agency director, thus “restoring executive branch oversight to the [agency].”
As a result, the president will soon be able to tell the agency’s director, “You’re fired.”
All of this @ Federal Court Hands Trump a Win, Rogue Agency Brought Under Tighter Control
