Cite as: 520 U. S. 651 (1997)
Opinion of Souter, J.
ranking officer or officers below the President: Whether one is an 'inferior' officer depends on whether he has a superior." Ante, at 662. The Court goes on to show that administrative supervision of these judges by the Judge Advocate General of the Coast Guard, combined with his power to control them by removal from a case, establishes that the intermediate appellate judges here have the necessary superior. With this conclusion I agree, but unlike the Court I am not prepared to decide on that basis alone that these judges are inferior officers.
Because the term "inferior officer" implies an official superior, one who has no superior is not an inferior officer. This unexceptionable maxim will in some instances be dispositive of status; it might, for example, lead to the conclusion that United States district judges cannot be inferior officers, since the power of appellate review does not extend to them personally, but is limited to their judgments. See In re Sealed Case, 838 F. 2d 476, 483 (CADC), rev'd sub nom. Morrison v. Olson, 487 U. S. 654 (1988) (suggesting that "lower federal judges . . . are principal officers" because they are "not subject to personal supervision," 838 F. 2d, at 483); cf. ante, at 665.
It does not follow, however, that if one is subject to some supervision and control, one is an inferior officer. Having a superior officer is necessary for inferior officer status, but not sufficient to establish it. See, e. g., Morrison v. Olson, 487 U. S., at 654, 722 ("To be sure, it is not a sufficient condition for 'inferior' officer status that one be subordinate to a principal officer. Even an officer who is subordinate to a department head can be a principal officer") (Scalia, J., dissenting). Accordingly, in Morrison, the Court's determination that the independent counsel was "to some degree 'inferior' " to the Attorney General, see id., at 671, did not end the enquiry. The Court went on to weigh the duties, jurisdiction, and tenure associated with the office, id., at 671-672, before concluding that the independent counsel was an infe-
667
Page: Index Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007