'Bombshell!' Ex-clerk to Clarence Thomas sends shockwaves with Supreme Court warning

[In It to Win It]

https://www.rawstory.com/humphreys-executor-trump/

The U.S. Supreme Court seems almost certain to side with President Donald Trump in an upcoming challenge to his authority to fire government officials for any reason, but a leading conservative legal scholar sent a warning that could give the justices pause.

University of Virginia law professor Caleb Nelson, a leading originalist scholar whose work has been cited by all of the court's conservative members in more than a dozen opinions, published an article Sept. 29 for the Democracy Project that has sent shockwaves through the legal community, reported the New York Times.

“Bombshell!” posted University of Chicago law professor William Baude on social media. “Caleb Nelson, one of the most respected originalist scholars in the country, comes out against the unitary executive interpretation” of the Constitution.

Nelson, a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, argued that the text of the Constitution and historical evidence shows Congress has broad authority to shape the executive branch and place limits on the president's ability to fire officials.

"If most of what the federal government currently does on a daily basis is 'executive,' and if the President must have full control over each and every exercise of 'executive' power by the federal government (including an unlimitable ability to remove all or almost all executive officers for reasons good or bad), then the President has an enormous amount of power — more power, I think, than any sensible person should want anyone to have, and more power than any member of the founding generation could have anticipated," Nelson wrote.

[Attilatheblond]

1. Bombshell? I think not. We've seen this before, thanks for the reminder.

But "Bombshell" it is not, and some of us are a bit weary of breathless clickbait headings.

[Ms. Toad]

3. Breathless, completely unrelated to the article, and misleading clickbait headings. n/t

[Baitball Blogger]

2. It's late and I just skimmed over it.

Sounds like they realize the damage they created by planting the idea in Trump's head that he had presidential immunity. Now that they see how he used it to usurp power from Congress, they're trying to stop the bleeding by reaffirming Congress's power.

Which means nothing until we win over the House and give Johnson the boot.

[calimary]

6. THAT'S what's needed.

Taking back the House - not this upcoming November but NEXT November, 2026.

Then, one of Trump’s favorite tools will lose a LOT of clout.

Let’s make it happen!!!

[elleng]

4. 'more power, I think, than any sensible person should want anyone to have,

and more power than any member of the founding generation could have anticipated," Nelson wrote.'

HOPE that more than unnamed 'they' agree. Will read again.

[PSPS]

5. LOL. Silly clickbait, usual for "raw story"

And, "could give the justices pause?" Give me a break. This batch of perjuring ideologues don't really care about "originalism" or anything else. They know their desired outcome and will concoct some Escher-worthy "logic" that isn't even a veneer of logic to justify it.

[Cirsium]

7. Notorious

Raw Story is nothing by a grifting clickbait operation. They take stories from elsewhere and put sensationalist headlines on them and then pack the pages with ads.

[Martin Eden]

8. "Congress has broad authority to shape the executive branch and place limits"

THIS Republican majority Congress is willingly servile to THIS POtuS.

They have ceded their power TO this POtuS. Even if this complicit SCOTUS were to agree with Nelson's "originalist" argument, Republicans would NOT exercise their power over this POtuS.

Why?
Because:
1. They fear retribution from this vindictive POtuS and his violent cult.
2. For generations the Republican Party has wanted to dismantle the regulatory/social welfare/administrative state, and this POtuS is achieving that.

[Prairie Gates]

9. Knew this goofy headline was going to be clickbait garbage from Raw Story