The Supreme Court's Pragmatic Turn on the Separation of Powers: Refining Appointments Clause and Nondelegation Doctrine

Pragmatism is the hallmark of two recent Supreme Court decisions on the separation of powers, Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, Inc. , and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) v. Consumers’ Research . These cases, which dealt with the Appointments Clause and the nondelegation doctrine (public and private) respectively, reject a rigid, literalist approach. Instead, these decisions strive to make…