# United States v. Arthrex **United States v. Arthrex, Inc.**, 594 U.S. 1, decided **June 21, 2021**, held that the unreviewable authority wielded by administrative patent judges of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board was incompatible with their appointment as **[[Inferior Officer]]s** under the [[Appointments Clause]]. Chief Justice [[John Roberts]] wrote; the remedy was to make PTAB decisions reviewable by the Senate-confirmed Director rather than to invalidate the appointments. Its significance for the special counsel question is negative and structural: the opinion of the Court treats [[Edmond v. United States]] as the governing test and **cites [[Morrison v. Olson]] zero times**. Every mention of *Morrison* in the case appears in a separate opinion, two of them quoting Scalia's *Morrison* dissent rather than the majority. *Edmond* functionally superseded *Morrison* on the inferior-officer question without ever formally overruling it — which is why "Morrison was overruled" is false and "Morrison is unaffected" is misleading. This is a stub — expand with the PTAB structure, the Federal Circuit's severance remedy, and the downstream agency-adjudication cases. ## See Also - [[Special Counsel Appointment and Removal Flow]] - [[Edmond v. United States]] · [[Morrison v. Olson]] · [[Appointments Clause]] · [[Inferior Officer]]