Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
United States Supreme Court
561 US 477 (2010)
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (defendant), whose members could be removed by the SEC only for good cause, while SEC Commissioners themselves could be removed by the President only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance. After the Board investigated an accounting firm, the firm and the Free Enterprise Fund (plaintiffs) sued, arguing this double layer of for-cause removal protection violated Article II's vesting of executive power in the President; the lower courts rejected the claim.
Whether the President may be constitutionally restricted from removing a principal officer at will when that principal officer is, in turn, restricted from removing an inferior officer except for good cause.