The Origins of the Fourth Branch

Since administrative agencies are in the news, I thought I'd relate the origins of the term "fourth branch" to describe them. Sometimes the fourth branch (much like using the "Fourth Estate" for the press) is descriptive. But often the fourth branch is used as a rebuke. ("We have only three branches. Duh.")

As far as I can tell, the first significant use of the term came in 1937. It was in the Report of the Brownlow Commission, which was organized by FDR and argued for greater presidential control over the Executive Branch. Here is the relevant paragraph from the report's executive summary:

DANGER OF "FOURTH BRANCH"

The Committee on Administrative Management also condemns all other boards and commissions when used for management, and recommends that they be abolished and their work transferred to the regular departments, in which there would be set up, wherever needed, a commission or board to deal exclusively with the judicial phases of the work. The Committee points out that the independent commissions have been created one by one over the past 50 years, and that they threaten in time to become "a headless fourth branch of the Government, not contemplated by the Constitution, and not responsible administratively either to the President, to the Congress, or to the Courts.

Following on the heels of Humphrey's Executor, it's hard not to see this as a criticism of the decision. Worth pondering as that case now lies bleeding on the field.