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The startling admission came in response to a federal judge’s hypothetical.

“Could the President decide that he wasn’t going to appoint or allow to remain in office any female heads of agencies or any heads over 40 years old?” Judge Karen Henderson, a Reagan appointee on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, asked Dpty Asst AG Eric McArthur Tues in proceedings over the fired board members of two #independent agencies.

“I think that that would be within the President’s constitutional authority under the removal power…there would be separate questions about whether that would violate other provisions of the #Constitution,” McArthur said.

Judge Justin Walker, a #Trump appointee on the panel, swooped in to try to salvage the moment, saying to the #DOJ atty that he didn’t think “you would have to go there,”pointing to the protections of the #14thAmendment.

The #DOJ is aiming to get these cases to #SCOTUS, where it’s betting that enough of the right-wing justices will agree to overturn the high court’s own #precedent on #independent agencies — encapsulated primarily in a 1936 case called Humphrey’s Executor — & axe the removal protections that keep leadership at such entities as the #NLRB or #MSPB insulated from political will or vindictiveness.

If the #DOJ wins, as many experts predict it will, the entire executive branch would come under #Trump’s direct control, allowing him even greater power over federal policy, & leaving virtually no barriers to his #MassFirings of civil servants in favor of political stooges.

@obviousdwest Seriously, that whole "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution" language in the oath of office never says "violate," and "violate" is not synonymous with those three verbs, either. DOJ's doublespeak has a Vietnam War spin to it: "To save the Constitution, we had to violate it."