Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-1434_ancf.pdf
Page Number: 46.0

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

7 

BREYER, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part
Opinion of BREYER, J. 

would protect certain basic principles.  A principle that pre-
vents  Congress  from  affording  inferior  level  adjudicators
some decisionmaking independence was not among them. 

Finally,  the  Executive  Branch  and  Congress  are  more 
likely than are judges to understand how to implement the
tasks that Congress has written into legislation.  That un-
derstanding  encompasses  the  nature  of  different  mecha-
nisms of bureaucratic control that may apply to the many
thousands of administrators who will carry out those tasks.
And it includes an awareness of the reasonable limits that 
can be placed on supervisors to ensure that those working 
under them enjoy a degree of freedom sufficient to carry out 
their  responsibilities.    Considered  as  a  group,  unelected 
judges have little, if any, experience related to this kind of
a problem.

This is not to say that the Constitution grants Congress
free rein.  But in this area of the law a functional approach,
when  compared  with  the  highly  detailed  judicial-rules-
based  approach  reflected  in  the  Court’s  decision,  is  more
likely to prevent inappropriate judicial interference.  It em-
bodies,  at  least  to  a  degree,  the  philosopher’s  advice: 
“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” 

II 
For the reasons I have set forth above, I do not agree with
the  Court’s  basic  constitutional  determination.    For  pur-
poses of determining a remedy, however, I recognize that a 
majority  of  the  Court  has  reached  a  contrary  conclusion.
On this score, I believe that any remedy should be tailored
to the constitutional violation.  Under the Court’s new test, 
the current statutory scheme is defective only because the 
APJ’s  decisions  are  not  reviewable  by  the  Director  alone. 
The Court’s remedy addresses that specific problem, and for 
that reason I agree with its remedial holding.