From yesterday’s New York Times:

Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, No. 08-861, for instance, concerns an issue that has engaged the court since the New Deal: at what point does the lack of presidential control over independent agencies violate separation-of-powers principles?

The case arose from the last big financial crisis, the accounting scandals at Enron, Worldcom and other companies. In response, in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Congress created an independent board to oversee accounting firms. The board’s members are appointed and may be removed for cause by the Securities and Exchange Commission, itself an independent agency, meaning the accounting board is doubly insulated from both political pressure and presidential oversight.