Ted Cruz, a Republican. “In real time we are seeing what happens when that wall of independence is torn down and an agency commissioner who is supposed to be independent under the law appears to be answering directly to the president,” Michael Sozan, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.The FCC and White House did not provide comment for this story, but Trump called Carr “a great American patriot” and said he disagreed with Cruz’s comments.The Unitary ExecutiveThe Supreme Court will hear a case in December in which the Trump administration is seeking to reverse a precedent that protects many of these board members from at-will firing by the president, and legal scholars say the writing has been on the wall for years for the majority-conservative court to side with the Trump administration.The Trump administration is setting the legal groundwork to gain control over dozens of independent agencies similar to the FCC by firing members of independent boards, getting sued, and then telling the courts the agencies unlawfully stepping on his rights as the nation’s sole executive.Underlying all of this is the unitary executive theory that says executive power lies solely with the president, and the people who wield it on his behalf should be able to be fired by him. That often includes making rules and policies on issues ranging from the safety of kids’ toys to what Americans can watch on TV.For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is designed to protect investors and keep financial markets fair, is one of more than two doen agencies that are legally similar to the FCC. So is the National Credit Union Administration, where Trump fired Democratic members in April, and the Federal Election Commission.”You can agree with the agency action, you can disagree with the agency action, but at the end of the day, you know whom to hold accountable for the actions that agency has taken,” is how Zack Smith, a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, described Trump administration’s position.Smith said that vision of presidential power goes back to the framers of the Constitution and it would apply to all presidents “whether you have a Republican in office, whether you have a Democrat in office, whether you have an independent in office.”Thomas Berry, the director of constitutional studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, says he supports the unitary executive theory and wants independent agencies to look more like Cabinet agencies, which implement the president’s agenda, and whose leaders can be fired by the president.