来源：《美联社新闻》
原文刊登日期：2021年6月23日
The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave the president greater power to fire the head of the agency that oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ruling that the agency’s structure violates separation of powers principles in the Constitution.
周三，美国最高法院授予总统更大的权力来解雇房利美和房地美的监管机构负责人，裁定该机构的结构违反了宪法中的分权原则。
Writing for a majority of the court, Justice Samuel Alito said that as the justices explained in a case last year, “the Constitution prohibits even ‘modest restrictions’ on the President’s power to remove the head of an agency with a single top officer.”
大法官塞缪尔·阿利托代表最高法院多数派表示，正如大法官在去年的一个案件中解释的那样，“宪法禁止仅仅是‘适度限制’总统罢免只有唯一长官的机构的负责人的权力。”
The ruling paves the way for President Joe Biden to remove Mark Calabria, who was nominated to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency in 2019 by then-President Donald Trump. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters after the Supreme Court decision that the president would nominate a new head of the FHFA, but she did not give a timeline.
这项裁决为乔·拜登总统解除马克·卡拉布里亚的职务铺平了道路。卡拉布里亚于2019年被时任总统唐纳德·特朗普提名为联邦住房金融局局长。白宫新闻秘书Psaki在最高法院做出裁决后告诉记者，总统将提名一位新的联邦住房金融局局长，但她没有给出时间表。
The FHFA was created during the 2008 financial crisis. Shareholders of the two companies had argued that the FHFA’s structure was unconstitutional and that the justices should set aside a 2012 agreement under which the companies have paid the government billions. That money is compensation for the taxpayer dollars that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac received following the 2008 financial crisis.
联邦住房金融局成立于2008年金融危机期间。房利美和房地美的股东辩称，联邦住房金融局的结构违宪，大法官应该取消一项2012年达成的协议，根据该协议两家公司已支付了数十亿美元。这笔钱是房利美和房地美对在2008年金融危机后获得的财政援助的补偿。
The justices declined to do what shareholders asked and set aside the entire 2012 agreement. The “FHFA’s structure violates the separation of powers, and we sent the case back to lower court for further proceedings to determine what remedy, if any, the shareholders are entitled to receive on their constitutional claim,” Alito wrote.
大法官们拒绝按照两家公司股东的要求，取消整个2012年协议。阿利托写道:“联邦住房金融局的结构违反了分权原则，我们将此案发回下级法院进行进一步审理，以确定股东有权就其宪法权益获得何种救济(如果有的话)。”
The case is in many ways similar to one the justices decided last year involving the FHFA’s companion agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is the government’s consumer watchdog agency. It was created by Congress in response to the same financial crisis.
该案件在很多方面与去年大法官裁决的一个案件相似，去年的案件涉及联邦住房金融局的伙伴机构——消费者金融保护局，这是政府的消费者监督机构。它也是国会为应对2008年金融危机而创立的。
In the case involving the bureau, the court struck down restrictions Congress imposed that said the president could only fire the bureau’s director for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
在这起涉及消费者金融保护局的案件中，最高法院推翻了国会规定的总统只能以“效率低下、玩忽职守或渎职”为由解雇消费者金融保护局局长的限制。
Just as the bureau’s leader was, the director of the FHFA is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate to a five-year term. In the FHFA’s case, the director was only removable by the president “for cause.”
就像消费者金融保护局局长一样，联邦住房金融局局长由总统提名，并由参议院确认，任期5年。在联邦住房金融局的案件中，局长只能因为“有足够的理由”才被免职。
In a statement issued after the ruling Calabria, the current FHFA director, called the job the honor of a lifetime and said he respected the decision and the authority of the president. He added that while the FHFA acted “quickly and effectively to provide relief to homeowners and renters impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic” problems remained and he wished his successor “all the best in fixing the remaining flaws of the housing finance system in order to preserve homeownership opportunities for all Americans.”
在裁决之后，现任联邦住房金融局局长卡拉布里亚发表声明，称这是一生的荣誉，并表示他尊重最高法院的决定和总统的权威。他补充说，虽然联邦住房金融管理局“迅速有效地采取行动，为受新冠大流行影响的房主和租房者提供救济”，但问题仍然存在，他祝愿他的继任者“尽最大努力修复住房金融体系的剩余缺陷，以便为所有美国人保留拥有住房的机会。”