| Issue: Executive Authority |
Summary
Executive Authority is the collection of powers that every President possesses as a matter of holding the office of President. Among these powers is the dismissal of any general officers in any branch of the armed services (as Commander in Chief), and the power to nominate all federal officers, civilian or military, who are subject to confirmation by the Senate.
Where conflict arises between the branches of government, the limits of Executive Authority are tested. For instance, a President may sign a treaty, but it doesn't go into effect until the Senate ratifies it. However, a President can abrogate a treaty without Senate approval. (See the Goldwater v. Carter case, in which Senator Goldwater sued President Carter over the latter's termination of the Panama Canal Treaty, but lost in court.)
Another ripe area for conflict is Executive Orders. In some areas such as revising tariffs on trade, Congress has given the President power to act immediately. In some areas such as reorganizing the White House staff, Congress does not interfere with the President's unilateral decisions. But where a President issues an Executive Order on a matter that would normally be subject to legislation by Congress, Congress may claim that the President has exceeded his Executive Authority. This area of conflict has not yet been resolved by the courts.
Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
Congress created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to enforce the Sarbanes Oxley law. But Congress provided for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), not the President, to appoint the members of the PCAOB. The President also has no...
Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
On February 9, 2009, the ACRU filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court arguing that the Court should review the decisions of the courts below upholding this arrangement. In response to the scandals at Enron and elsewhere,...
02/17/09: Ken Blackwell: A Chicago-Style Census
The census is one of the most important functions performed by the federal government because the integrity our representative democracy depends on it. Because both parties understand its importance, the census has always been insulated from political corruption.
02/11/09: Walter Williams: The Hell With Our Constitution
Dr. Robert Higgs, senior fellow at the Oakland-based Independent Institute, penned an article in The Christian Science Monitor (2/9/2009) that suggests the most intelligent recommendation that I've read to fix our current economic mess. The title of his article gives his recommendation away: "Instead of stimulus, do nothing -- seriously."
02/10/09: John Armor: When Terrorists Walk Free
Making the decision to close Guantanamo Bay without any real plan for dealing with the prisoners demonstrates the pervasive lack of understanding policymakers and the public have about the entire system. There are many gross misconceptions about the differences between trials of the Gitmo prisoners in military tribunals and criminal trials in the U.S., but few people understand them. And if the people don't know these differences and state their opinions, additional Americans may die as a result of the presidential order about Gitmo.
08/ 8/08: John Armor: American history shows reform is possible
Most Americans don't know there was another U.S. government, before the Constitution was drafted. Simplified books and courses leave out the Articles of Confederation, the government of the U.S. for its first 11 years. There were several fatal defects in the Articles; one was its presidency.
06/16/08: Horace Cooper: Dangerous overreach
On Thursday June 12, 2008, a narrow five-member majority struck down the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, the so-called military tribunals' law.This law was passed by Congress to set up procedures for the legal treatment of unlawful enemy combatants in order to prevent terrorists from flooding our federal courts.Not only does the decision in the case, Boumediene v. Bush, run contrary to precedent and the Constitution, but it is yet another dangerous example of the judiciary usurping the constitutional authority of the political branches of government.
02/ 1/08: Horace Cooper: President Has Power To Let FISA Continue
Rather than pass a permanent renewal of America's foreign intelligence surveillance capability, Congress continues to debate the need for the Protect America Act. After waiting six months, they've now passed a 15-day extension of the act giving them more time to bicker over the issue. If they fail to act, it is essential that President Bush use his inherent executive power to continue the electronic surveillance program.
01/24/08: Ken Blackwell: No Time Outs in the War on Terror
In his State of the Union address next week, it is imperative that President Bush push for the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. Setting aside foolish partisan politics and ad hominem arguments, FISA is necessary for the national security of America and the safety of Americans.
11/19/07: Horace Cooper: Please Don't Pick This Fight
Many Congress watchers assumed that the fight between the House Judiciary Committee and the White House over subpoenas to former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and current White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten would end when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned.
10/23/07: Horace Cooper: Strike This Down
In the wake of President Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Congress is preparing for another showdown with the White House. But this time the dispute won't be over health care spending for children, instead the dispute has consequences for all Americans because it is over which branch of government is best suited to know which ground rules are needed for fighting the war on terror.
10/17/07: Peter Ferrara: Support President Bush's SCHIP Veto
The bill extending the State Children's Health Insurance (SCHIP) program that President Bush just vetoed would have increased spending on the program by 140%, costing $60 billion over just the next five years.
09/22/07: Horace Cooper: Executive Decision
President Bush's announcement of the name of the person who would replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was eagerly anticipated by many in Washington. Gonzales, caricatured as inept and bumbling by critics of the President, had decided in August that he wouldn't continue in his designated role as Washington's whipping boy du jour.
08/27/07: Horace Cooper: Gonzales is Gone but Dems Should Be Careful What They Ask For
Score another one for the politics of personal destruction. Democrats have managed to run out of town one of President Bush's longest serving aides from Texas -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.' But they may want to put the champagne glasses down because this resignation may end up for the Democrats being a case of "be careful what you ask for."
08/16/07: John Armor: President Bush and the Constitution aren't Enemies
The latest spate of articles accusing the Bush Administration of trampling the US Constitution in prosecuting the War in Iraq have quoted Bruce Fein, cited variously as a "conservative lawyer" and "a deputy attorney general in the Reagan Administration." He is not being quoted because he is a reliable source but because he says what the opponents of the war want said. Factual inquiry stops there.
07/31/07: Peter Ferrara: Impoverished Poverty Program; Oh, No, Obama
Barack Obama announced last week his policy agenda to combat urban poverty. As president, he would spend an additional $6 billion a year for such things as:
04/18/07: William Otis: The Gonzales Hunt
No one doubts that Congress has the right, if not the obligation, to inquire into malfeasance by the executive branch. But the current campaign against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales reeks of the very political infection it purports to deplore.
EXCERPT: "Presidential claims of a right to preserve the confidentiality of information and documents in the face of legislative demands have figured prominently, though intermittently, in executive-congressional relations since at least 1792. Few such interbranch disputes over access to information have reached the courts for substantive resolution, the vast majority achieving resolution through political negotiation and accommodation. In fact, it was not until the Watergate-related lawsuits in the 1970's seeking access to President Nixon's tapes that the existence of a presidential confidentiality Authority was judicially established as a necessary derivative of the President's status in our constitutional scheme of separated powers.
09/13/07: Put Your Lack of Money Where Your Mouth Is
EXCERPT: The subtext of yesterday's Joint hearing in the House featuring General Petraeus and the coming Senate hearing, is the position that the Democrats in Congress will take when the dust settles. Some Democrat warhorses, like Senator Kennedy, staked out their...
08/24/07: Leahy/Schumer Threaten Judicial Neutrality
EXCERPT: Recent comments by Senators Leahy and Schumer critical of Justices Roberts and Alito demonstrate the senators' significant misunderstanding about the role of the Supreme Court and reveal their own flawed judicial philosophy.
08/16/07: War and the Constitution: Has War on the Terrorists Been Properly Declared?
EXCERPT: The following is an article of mine that ran in UPI papers on September 19, 2002 - after we had declared and commenced war on anti-American terrorists but before the Iraq War: Commentary: Are we at war? The United States...
06/12/07: Monday's Pro-Al-Qaida Decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals
EXCERPT: Monday's divided (2-1) decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is wrong in a number of serious ways (see "Federal appeals court rules against enemy combatant policy"). It refers to "enemy combatants" without knowing what that phrase means. It...
06/ 4/07: Guantanamo Prisoner Case Dismissed
EXCERPT: Today, a US military judge dismissed charges against a 20-year-old prisoner. This decision was widely, but not competently, reported around the world. The Associated Press story in US papers was close to accurate. Canadian detainee, Omar Khadr, was accused of...
