The Executive Branch
What we will study in this unit::
How the President is elected
What his powers are
Significant Presidents .. Well aren’t
they all?
Modern Roles of the Presidency
Public Opinion and the Presidency
Change we can believe in??
.. and other fun stuff!
Electoral College:
Discuss Reading: Math Against Tyranny
Electoral College Case Studies
Presidential Qualifications
•Natural born citizen of the United States
•35 or older
•Resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years
Term Limit: 2 full terms or 10 years,
whichever comes first
22nd Amendment – Ratified in 1951 –
Prevents a President from serving more
than two terms or ten years. In response
to Presidency of FDR (elected 4 times)
Sorry Arnold
Vice President basically created to stand in for
President if necessary.
Also votes when there is a tie in the senate.
My name is Joe, I like to
talk.
Rules of Succession:
Constitution Originally said VP gets the spot.
25th Amendment – Adopted in 1967 to establish procedures for filling vacancies in
the office of President and VP as well as procedures to deal with the disability of a
president.
Presidential Succession Act of 1947 established today’s succession order
And so on …..
Should VP become vacant,
President appoints new VP
with 2/3 Congress approval
(both houses)
In 25th Amendment:
If President is incapacitated, VP becomes acting President.
VP and majority of cabinet can declare President unfit for duty.
Operation!!!
The Awesome Presidential Powers
President Kirk … if only ….
Appointment Power
Authorized by Congress to appoint, with the advice and consent of the Senate,
“Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, judges of the supreme Court, and
all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise
provided for, and which shall be established by Law.”
President has authority to make more than 6,000(!) appointments. From biggies like
cabinet secretaries and judges to others, like heads of agencies and the like. Yes, we
have a huge government.
Cabinet – Formal body of presidential advisors who head 15 executive departments.
More on this later.
The Power to Make Treaties and
Executive Agreements
Treaty – agreements with other
nations that must be ratified by the
Senate
Executive Agreements – Formal
agreement entered into by the
President that does not require
consent of Senate.
Have been upheld in courts, but are
not binding on future administrations.
Executive Agreements have greatly
expanded Presidential power in
foreign affairs.
The Veto Power
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/vetoes.php
Chart Presidential Vetoes
Veto: We know what this is …
Pocket Veto: We know what this
is too …
Line Item Veto – The authority of
the chief executive to delete part
of a bill passed by Congress that
involves taxing or spending. This
authority was granted in 1996,
but subsequently ruled
unconstitutional.
The President as Commander in Chief
Over time, Presidential Power as
Commander in Chief has expanded.
After Vietnam, a concerned Congress
passed:
The War Powers Act – The President is
limited in the deployment of troops overseas
to a sixty day period in peacetime (which
can be extended for an extra thirty days to
permit withdrawel) unless Congress
explicitly gives its approval for a longer
period.
The Situation Room
Executive Privilege
An implied presidential power (not mentioned in the Constitution) that allows the
president to refuse to disclose information regarding confidential conversations
or national security to Congress or the judiciary.
US v. Nixon 1974 – Key Supreme Court
ruling on power of the president – Court
could order President to hand over
information on Watergate scandal.
So, executive privilege is not absolute.
But ….
President Bush invoked it when he refused to give Congress memos
written by White House counsel Harriet Myers, which helped scuttle
her nomination to the US Supreme Court.
Executive privilege was also an issue in the administration's
resistance to sharing notes from the Vice President's Energy Task
Force meetings.
and in their resistance to share what they knew about Hurricane
Katrina's destructive potential.
From npr.org
Obama v. Bush
Bush signed an executive order making it possible for former presidents
to assert executive privilege over documents.
Obama signed an executive order reversing Bush’s executive order.
Only current presidents can assert executive privilege.
Where do you stand?
History of Pardons
• To the Framers, the power to pardon, familiar as a power
of the King of England, was necessary because the way
the law was applied.
• In England, it was common for minor offenses to carry a
sentence of death, with pardon by the King being the
only way to avoid the punishment.
• Judges often applied a death sentence, having no
choice, but at the same time applied for a Royal Pardon
in the same breath.
• This is what Hamilton was referring to when he
mentioned "necessary severity" and "unfortunate guilt."
Presidential Pardons 2 Case
Studies
• Carter- Vietnam Draft Dodgers
• Ford- President Nixon
Presidential Pardons
• Just a day after Jimmy Carter's
inauguration, he granted a presidential
pardon to those who had avoided the draft
during the Vietnam war by either not
registering or traveling abroad.
• The pardon meant the government was
giving up forever the right to prosecute
what the administration said were
hundreds of thousands of draft-dodgers
Ford Pardons Nixon
• “My conscience tells me clearly and certainly
that I cannot prolong the bad dreams that
continue to reopen a chapter that is closed. My
conscience tells me that only I, as president,
have the constitutional power to firmly shut and
seal this book.....”
• “Now, therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, president of
the United States, pursuant to the pardon power
conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the
Constitution, have granted and by these
presents do grant a full, free, and absolute
pardon unto Richard Nixon ..."
Impeachment: A review
Discuss:
1) The Controversy surrounding the War Powers Act
2) Readings – The Imperial Presidency – Evaluate the policies of the
Bush Presidency
3) Where do we go from here: The choices of Obama’s administration