The first independent, multi-member regulatory commission in the U.S. was the Interstate Commerce Commission, created by Congress in 1887.

The Federal Reserve's independence is now in a precarious state, making it an "endangered species" as potentially the only constitutionally permissible independent agency.

The Supreme Court's 1935 decision in Humphreys Executor v. United States unanimously rejected President Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempt to remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission without cause.