[x] One of the Insular Cases, Balzac involved a Puerto Rico newspaper publisher who was prosecuted for libel but denied a jury trial, a Sixth Amendment protection under the constitution. Taft held that as Puerto Rico was not a territory designated for statehood, only such constitutional protections as Congress decreed would apply to its residents.[195]

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1925. Taft is seated in the bottom row, middle.
In 1926, Taft wrote for a 6–3 majority in Myers v. United States[y] that Congress could not require the president to get Senate approval before removing an appointee. Taft noted that there is no restriction of the president's power to remove officials in the Constitution. Although Myers involved the removal of a postmaster,[196] Taft in his opinion found invalid the repealed Tenure of Office Act, for violation of which his presidential predecessor, Andrew Johnson, had been impeached, though acquitted by the Senate.[197] Taft valued Myers as his most important opinion.[198]
The following year, the court decided McGrain v. Daugherty.