Freytag v. Commissioner
Freytag v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 501 U.S. 868 (1991), is a United States federal court case in which the Supreme Court of the United States decided the characteristics of inferior officers of the United States for the purposes of the Appointments Clause. The case concerned the appointment method of special trial judges of the United States Tax Court. The Court was unanimous in its conclusion that special trial judges were inferior officers under the Appointments Clause, rather than mere employees, because of the characteristics of their office and that their appointment was constitutional. Positions constitute inferior officers when the position (1) is  established by law and (2) exercises significant authority (3) involving significant discretion. The division between the majority, led by Justice Harry Blackmun, and the concurrence, led by Justice Antonin Scalia, centered on the status of the Tax Court itself.