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Page Number: 67

20 

UNITED STATES v. ARTHREX, INC. 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

Ultimately,  this  group  won  out,  “expressly  designat[ing]” 
the  Secretary  of  the  Department  of  Foreign  Affairs  as  a 
“principal officer,” not an inferior one.  Edmond, 520 U. S., 
at  663  (quoting  Act  of  July  27,  1789,  ch.  4, §§1–2,  1  Stat.
28–29).

This principal-inferior dichotomy also finds roots in the 
structure  of  the  Constitution,  which  specifically  identifies
both  principal  officers  (in  the  Opinions  Clause  and  the
Twenty-fifth Amendment) and inferior officers (in the Ap-
pointments Clause).  And it comports with contemporane-
ous dictionary definitions.  A “principal” officer is “[a] head”
officer; “a chief; not a second.”  2 Johnson, Dictionary of the
English Language.  Other executive officers would, by defi-
nition, be lower than or subordinate to these head officers. 
The principal-inferior officer divide played out in other 
contexts as well.  In the debate over removability of officers,
Representative  Smith  indicated  that  he  “had  doubts 
whether [an] officer could be removed by the President” in 
light of the impeachment process.  1 Annals of Cong. 372. 
Madison disagreed, arguing that impeachment alone for all 
removals “would in effect establish every officer of the Gov-
ernment  on  the  firm  tenure  of  good  behaviour;  not  the 
heads  of  Departments  only,  but  all  the  inferior  officers  of
those Departments, would hold their offices during good be-
haviour.”  Ibid. 

State constitutions at the founding lend credence to this
idea that inferior officers encompass all officers except for
the heads of departments.  For example, the 1789 Georgia
State  Constitution  provided  that  “militia  officers  and  the 
secretaries  of  the  governor  . . .  shall  be  appointed  by  the
governor.”  Art. IV,  §2.    But  “[t]he  general  assembly  may 
vest the appointment of inferior officers in the governor, the
courts of justice, or in such other manner as they may by 
law establish.”  Ibid.  The law thus distinguished between
secretaries  and  inferior  officers.  Similarly,  the  Delaware
Constitution  directed  that  “[t]he  State  treasurer  shall  be