Reposted by Todd PhillipsTodd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Ben Cavataro and I have a new paper forthcoming in the Journal of Law and Politics titled "Associate Commissioners." We interviewed 24 associate members of multimember regulatory agencies to understand the *actual* power they wield in their agencies. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... 153
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Ben Cavataro and I have a new paper forthcoming in the Journal of Law and Politics titled "Associate Commissioners." We interviewed 24 associate members of multimember regulatory agencies to understand the *actual* power they wield in their agencies. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... 153
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 26/08/2026I say this as a former Roosevelt Institute fellow: This is a bad take. We all know that NBFIs will fail, and the Fed's only legal authority is to bail them out. We need Congress to legislate before there is a crisis, addressing the moral hazard that comes from the Fed's unilateral action. 131
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 01/08/2026Does anyone know what the polling on immigration/ICE looks like for Maine likely voters? 010
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 31/07/2026The US has apparently decided to not enforce AML/sanctions rules against banks doing business with Venezuela. This means that, although Venezuela is still sanctioned, anyone who was previously unable to get ill-gotten funds out of the country can now do so. www.fdic.gov/news/press-r... 192
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 27/07/2026As the Election Assistance Comm'n currently shows, presidential removal can prevent agencies from functioning by ensuring there is no one with power to execute the law. Nick and I argue that the Take Care Clause will not support such a conclusion, and encourage courts to enjoin such removals. 011
Reposted by Todd PhillipsNick Bednar @nicholasbednar.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Over at @ssrn.bsky.social, @tphillips.bsky.social and I have a new essay called "A Faithful Execution Exception to Slaughter," examining whether courts should enjoin removals when they break quorums in multimember commissions. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....papers.ssrn.comA Faithful Execution Exception to SlaughterIn Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court held that Article II permits a President to remove principal officers at will. Ostensibly, the removal power allows the 0135
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 27/07/2026From @punchbowlnews.bsky.social: 50+ academics from across the ideological spectrum signed a letter urging Congress to restore agency independence following Trump v. Slaughter. punchbowl.news/open-letter-... 181
Reposted by Todd PhillipsThe Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 13/07/2026The Supreme Court greatly weakened independent agencies, but the president's power to fire their officials is not exactly the trump card it looks like. @tphillips.bsky.social on how Congress can slow the politicization of independent agencies:lnk.thebulwark.comThe Supreme Court Broke Independent Agencies. Here’s a Way to Slow the Damage.A crypto bill before Congress offers a chance to keep presidents from turning independent commissions into one-party instruments. 26521
Reposted by Todd PhillipsTodd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 12/07/2026I'm up in @thebulwark.com this morning with a piece (1) arguing that quorum requirements are an opportunity to push back against the Supreme Court's decision in Slaughter and (2) encouraging Senators to demand their inclusion in the forthcoming crypto bill. www.thebulwark.com/p/supreme-co...thebulwark.comThe Supreme Court Broke Independent Agencies. Here’s a Way to Slow the Damage.A crypto bill before Congress offers a chance to keep presidents from turning independent commissions into one-party instruments. 322951
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 12/07/2026I'm up in @thebulwark.com this morning with a piece (1) arguing that quorum requirements are an opportunity to push back against the Supreme Court's decision in Slaughter and (2) encouraging Senators to demand their inclusion in the forthcoming crypto bill. www.thebulwark.com/p/supreme-co...thebulwark.comThe Supreme Court Broke Independent Agencies. Here’s a Way to Slow the Damage.A crypto bill before Congress offers a chance to keep presidents from turning independent commissions into one-party instruments. 322951
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 10/07/2026In this Lawfare post, Nick and I argue that the Take Care Clause should be read as prohibiting the president from stopping the law from being executed. 49531
Reposted by Todd PhillipsNick Bednar @nicholasbednar.bsky.social · 10/07/2026Over at @lawfaremedia.org, @tphillips.bsky.social and I discuss the relationship between the removal power and the President's obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed in the context of the recent firings at the EAC. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/fait...lawfaremedia.orgFaithful Execution and the Removal PowerPresident Trump is exercising his removal power in ways that defeat his duty to faithfully execute the law. 03016
Reposted by Todd PhillipsNick Bednar @nicholasbednar.bsky.social · 10/07/2026@tphillips.bsky.social and I recently wrote about this issue. We also drafted an amicus brief that touched on it in Slaughter. As far as we are concerned, Slaughter did not resolve the conflict between the Take Care Clause and the removal power. We'll post an update on @lawfaremedia.org shortly. 23112
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 10/07/2026The Democrats should challenge their removal on the grounds that preventing an agency from functioning is not taking care that the law is faithfully executed. 36317
Reposted by Todd PhillipsDan Walters @profdanwalters.bsky.social · 07/07/2026I really do think that there needs to be a movement--every bit as sustained and well-organized as the movement leading to Slaughter--to invigorate the positive requirements of the Take Care Clause of Article II. It's sitting there in plain sight and it means what it says. 25620
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 02/07/2026I'd love to know how the FTC thinks large language models are created. 130
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Hey @kexelchabot.bsky.social, this seems like an ahistoric reading of these laws, right? The president couldn't fire the CJ or VP, but could remove them from their positions on the sinking fund commission? What? 040
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 29/06/2026With the Slaughter opinion today, we need to figure out whether we still believe in agency independence. Here's my argument from last year that independence is a progressive value in itself, and a call to scholars and policymakers about how to defend it: democracyjournal.org/arguments/am...democracyjournal.orgAmerica Needs Independent RegulatorsA future Democratic President will be tempted to use power like Trump. That would be a mistake. 031
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 29/06/2026There are two ways to read this: The civil service is gone, or Slaughter is just a sloppy opinion by a Supreme Court on a mission. 0258
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 29/06/2026The Cook and Slaughter opinions, released together, show just how political the Supreme Court is. As Kavanaugh's concurrence in Cook makes clear, the Court treats the Federal Reserve as special for no reason other than its own policy preference. 6348113
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 25/06/2026If you'd like to learn about how a stablecoin issuer's choice of charter affects how it'll be treated in insolvency, I have a blog post on the topic. www.klaros.com/post/insolve...klaros.comInsolvency for Payment Stablecoin IssuersThis is the first in a series of blog posts investigating the GENIUS Act’s insolvency provisions and offering considerations for those interested in issuing payment stablecoins.By Doug Landy & Todd Ph... 045
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 24/06/2026@robinwigglesworth.ft.com I love this caption. Well done. 010
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 04/06/2026I spoke with the AP about how crazy it is that George Santos may have engaged in insider trading / market manipulation on contracts about himself on Kalshi. Contracts about whether someone will attend the SOTU are straight-up gambling. apnews.com/article/geor... 200
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 01/06/2026Very pleased to see this article in print! Here's hoping its arguments will be adopted by courts! 010
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 29/05/2026Hey professors who advise on student notes, here's a topic idea: Before the 20th century, what were the laws applicable to redeeming bank notes, and is there applicability to stablecoins today? My sense is that anyone could redeem notes, but that's not the case for stablecoins. 020
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 14/05/2026I was on @mprnews.org talking about--what else--prediction markets. Minnesota's legislature passed an anti-PM bill that the governor is likely to soon sign. What will happen then? Lawsuits. www.mprnews.org/episode/2026...mprnews.orgPassage of Minnesota prediction market ban sets stage for likely lawsuitsMinnesota lawmakers Tuesday passed a bill banning prediction markets from the state. If it’s signed into law, it will likely face legal challenges, as courts around the country weigh what counts as ga... 021
Reposted by Todd PhillipsNick Bednar @nicholasbednar.bsky.social · 13/05/2026Oh boy! Do @tphillips.bsky.social and I have an article for everyone about the recent mischievousness surrounding quorums. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....papers.ssrn.comCommission QuorumsMultimember commissions are a central feature of the modern administrative state. Yet a growing number have lost their legal authority to function—not through s 14719
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 11/05/2026How does the crypto industry expect they'll be able to get Democratic votes in the Senate for CLARITY if they're proposing that they can list contracts that are susceptible to manipulation?! Link: www.politico.com/news/2026/05... 131
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 28/04/2026What I find fascinating about this is that the weirdness is (largely) limited to JUST the first page. The rest (largely) reads like a normal brief. It seems like the first page was gussied-up for public consuption. 041
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 26/04/2026I see two big lingering questions: 1) Will Jerome Powell stay on the Board after Warsh is confirmed? 2) If Powell stays on, do the other governors treat him as the de facto chair of the Board and FOMC (or even vote him as de jure chair of the FOMC)? 111
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 23/04/2026As I told @politico.com, Kevin Warsh's view that Fed governors are independent for monetary policy but not bank regulation doesn't work. www.politico.com/newsletters/... 071
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 01/04/2026I spoke with @clairewilliams.bsky.social re stablecoin yield. "Much of this has been Coinbase saying we want to do activity-based whatever, and the banking industry saying we're fine with that, except for staking and Coinbase saying, no, that's an activity." www.americanbanker.com/news/crypto-...americanbanker.comCrypto needs the yield compromise more than banks doThe stalemate over stablecoin yield leaves both sides uneasy, but ultimately favor banks. 043
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 26/03/2026Can any of my followers who do consumer work opine on whether debanking really is likely to be a violation of the FTC Act? It's not unlawful under the federal banking laws. www.ftc.gov/news-events/...ftc.govFTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson Issues Warning Letters to CEOs of PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard About Debanking American ConsumersFederal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. 010
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 12/03/2026I spoke with the @apnews.com about what's at stake in #PredictionMarkets litigation: "What’s at stake here is whether states will be able to regulate gambling or if gambling is going to be subsumed into finance and ultimately regulated by Congress.” apnews.com/article/utah...apnews.comUtah’s anti-gambling tradition meets Kalshi and Polymarket in a new legal fightUtah is at the forefront of a states' rights battle between itself and prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. 041
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 02/03/2026Pleased that my co-authored piece, Regulatory History and Judicial Review, is now out in the Minnesota Law Review! We argue that courts should allow agencies to supplement their rules' preambles with internal records to demonstrate contemporaneous rationales. minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/u... 000
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 17/02/2026@nicholasbednar.bsky.social and I have an op-ed in @bloomberglaw.com encouraging litigators who suing regulatory agencies that are missing more than half of their membership (like the CFTC, FTC, and NCUA) to include quorum violations among their claims. news.bloomberglaw.com/legal-exchan...news.bloomberglaw.comLitigators Urged to Challenge Potentially Inquorate AgenciesFor the past year, several federal multimember regulatory agencies have been operating with a fraction of their seats filled. Though a single absence doesn’t impede a commission’s ability to operate, ... 12411
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 09/02/2026Does an enterprising class-action lawyer want to take this on, on the basis that the NCUA lacks a quorum and is legally unable to approve this extension? 071
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 08/02/2026New polling on crypto says what I've been saying for years: 42% to 32%, voters support strong legislation to protect consumers, stop scams, address money laundering, and ensure that crypto can't threaten the financial system. punchbowl.news/2-6-26-crypt... 011
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 06/02/2026Interesting amicus brief by @democracyforward.org in Trump's $10b tax lawuit. They convincingly make the claim that there is no case or controversy if the President is on both sides of the litigation. Interesting consequence of the UET. democracyforward.org/wp-content/u... 1313237
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 22/01/2026It turns out, industry doesn't really like the unitary executive theory. At the encouragement of the banking industry, the FDIC (which includes Russ Vought) just approved procedures that remove PAS officials from adjudicating cases. www.fdic.gov/board/federa... 157
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 16/01/2026I know most folks on Bluesky don't follow crypto, but I put this on the Other Site and figured I'd post it here for anyone who wants to understand what's going on. TL;DR: Community/regional banks and Coinbase are locked in a zero-sum competition. If one wins, the other loses. 094
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 06/01/2026I'll be at AALS this week. Let me know if you want to grab coffee, a meal, or just have a casual chat! 010
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 30/12/2025Flagging this for colleagues who study legislation, like @beaubaumann.bsky.social. Someone should write about efforts to redefine through regulation terms that Congress thought had concrete meanings. Beau and I wrote about the term "investment contract," and I've just found another one. 021
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 30/12/2025Inspired by others (particularly Jeremy Kress), late yesterday I submitted a short comment letter on the OCC/FDIC NPRM on unsafe or unsound practices. A lot of it was pulled from my prior scholarship, but I learned a fascinating new thing over the course of writing it. 1/ 162
Reposted by Todd PhillipsTodd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 22/12/2025I just filed an amicus brief in Kalshi's lawsuit against Maryland, arguing that the sports-related contracts Kalshi lists are unlikely to be commodity derivatives, such that the CFTC does not have "exclusive jurisdiction" over them and Maryland's gaming laws are not preempted. 1/ 185
Reposted by Todd PhillipsTuffy @smtuffy.bsky.social · 22/12/2025Shout out to @tphillips.bsky.social for this one 1243
Todd Phillips @tphillips.bsky.social · 22/12/2025I just filed an amicus brief in Kalshi's lawsuit against Maryland, arguing that the sports-related contracts Kalshi lists are unlikely to be commodity derivatives, such that the CFTC does not have "exclusive jurisdiction" over them and Maryland's gaming laws are not preempted. 1/ 185