You’re Fired
From Dave (Warner Bros.)
Categories:
Run time: 2:57
Clip Description: Dave dismisses the chief of staff, the figure who has been running the presidency in the president’s absence.
American Politics Concepts Discussed/Connected To: The power to appoint and remove as the core of executive control; the chief of staff as an unconfirmed office with enormous reach; who in the executive branch serves at pleasure and who does not; the removal power line running from the Tenure of Office Act through Myers and Humphrey’s Executor to the independent agencies.
Possible Uses in Classroom: Under three minutes and usable whole. It is the best short setup available for the removal-power cases, because students who have watched an at-will dismissal immediately want to know why it does not work that way everywhere.
Discussion Questions
- The chief of staff is not confirmed by the Senate and can be dismissed at will. What does that combination do to the incentives of the person holding the job?
- Which executive branch officials can a president remove at will, and which cannot be removed that easily? Name the category and the reason for the difference.
- The scene treats firing as the restoration of proper authority. Is dismissal evidence that a system worked, or that it had already failed?
Assignment
Take one dispute over a president’s power to remove an official — the Tenure of Office Act, Myers, Humphrey’s Executor, or a recent case involving an independent agency. Two pages: what was at stake, how it was resolved, and what the resolution established. Close on what it means for the independence of agencies today, and be specific about what is settled and what is not.
Clip hosted on YouTube, posted by Movieclips.
For AP Students
AP U.S. Government and Politics
Unit 2: Interactions Among Branches of Government
Topics: 2.6 Presidential Powers; 2.12 The Bureaucracy; 2.14 Holding the Bureaucracy Accountable; 2.15 Policy and the Branches of Government
Appointment and removal is directly examinable, and the CED expects students to explain how presidents control the bureaucracy through it. Under three minutes, so it costs almost nothing to use.
Discussion questions
- Name three categories of executive branch official and say for each whether Senate confirmation is required and whether the president may remove at will. Where do the categories blur?
- Independent regulatory agencies were designed to be insulated from presidential control. Name the features that do the insulating, and explain the argument that they are constitutionally suspect.
- The Senate’s confirmation power is a check on appointment but not, in most cases, on removal. What does that asymmetry do to the balance between the branches?
Short activity
Who serves at pleasure (15 minutes). List ten real executive branch positions — a cabinet secretary, the chief of staff, a Federal Reserve governor, an inspector general, a United States attorney, a career GS-14, an FCC commissioner. Have students sort them by whether the president can remove the holder at will. The ones the room argues about are the ones currently being litigated, which is worth telling them.