Supreme Court rules against an unaccountable bureaucracy

On Monday, in Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Supreme Court scored a major victory for constitutionalism by holding that the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau violates our governmental separation of powers. The vote was 5–4, and Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the court’s opinion.

We all learned in high school civics class about the separation of powers, under which executive power is vested in the president. Roberts’s opinion reminds us that under the Constitution, granting executive power to an unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat is anathema to our system of checks and balances.