CHAPTER 14
THE PRESIDENCY
How should we remember
Lincoln?
• Two Song Warm Up:
What do you think this song is about i.e. what’s going
on?
What message is the songwriter trying to convey
about the use of military force and/or war?
Do you agree or disagree with the message? Defend
your answer.
 Political Left
 War
 By Edwin Starr (1970)
 Political Right
 Courtesy of the Red,
White, and Blue
 Toby Keith (2002)
PRESIDENCY TODAY
• “The President of the U.S. occupies one of the most powerful
offices in the world. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson sent
American troops to Vietnam, President Bush sent them to
Saudi Arabia, and President Clinton sent them to Kosovo
(Yugoslavia), all without war being declared by Congress. In
fact, Clinton ordered our air force to bomb parts of Yugoslavia
despite the fact that the House of Representatives had
rejected a resolution that would have authorized the
bombing. President Nixon imposed wage and price controls
on the country. Between them, Presidents Carter and Reagan
selected most of the federal judges now on the bench; thus
the political philosophies of these two men were stamped on
the courts. President George W. Bush created military tribunals
to try captured terrorists and persuaded Congress to toughen
antiterrorist laws. President Obama, within just months of taking
office, got Congress to go along with his plans for giving the
executive branch new and sweeping powers to regulate
financial markets…No wonder people talk about us having an
‘imperial presidency’”. p365
THE EXTENSION OF SUFFRAGE
“If I own an ass today, I can vote. If
my ass dies tomorrow, I lose my
ability to vote” – Ben Franklin
Stage 1: 1789-1828 – Only white property-owning males can vote
PRESIDENT VS. CONGRESS
IN WAR MAKING POWERS
• Crystal Clear Powers?
• Commander in Chief of the
Army & Navy
• Commander in Chief of the
state militias (now the National
Guard)
• Commission all officers
• Appoint ambassadors,
ministers and consuls, & make
treaties subject to senate
confirmation
• Receive ambassadors
• Vague? ELASTIC???
• “Faithfully execute” the laws
• Require the opinion of heads
of executive departments
• Recommend “measures” to
the congress
• Upon “extraordinary
occasions” convene both
houses of congress
• Crystal Clear Powers?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Declare war (B)
Raise & support army & navy
Ratify treaties (S)
Advise & consent ambassadors (S)
Make rules concerning captures on
land and water (B)
Make rules for the government and
regulation of the land and naval forces
(B)
Provide for calling forth the militia to
execute the laws of the union (B)
Suppress insurrections and repel
invasions (B)
Organize, arm, train militia
• Vague? ELASTIC???
•
•
•
•
•
•
Make all laws necessary and proper for
carrying out expressed powers in the
Constitution
Regulate commerce with foreign
nations
Originate tax bill (hr)
Collect taxes, duties, excises (b)
Borrow $ (b)
Define & punish offenses against the
law of nations (b)
FORMAL DECLARATIONS OF WAR
• War of 1812
• Mexican American War (1846)
• Spanish American War (1898)
• WWI (1917)
• WWII (1941)---LAST FORMAL DECLARATION OF WAR!
UH OHHH Now what?
Korea…(authorized by U.N. and funded by Congress)
Vietnam…(authorized by Congress)
Iraq and Afghanistan…(authorized by Congress)
The War Powers Resolution
Read over the War Powers
Resolution.
2. What do you think was the
major purpose(s) of this piece
of LEGISLATION?
(Remember this is NOT an
Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution)
3. What do you think are the
FOUR major provisions in
this legislation?
1.
War Articles
 Count off by 4’s
 Read the article you have been assigned to
 Answer Part 1 of your packet for your article.
1. Get into 5 groups (one person for each article)
1.
2.
Reexamine Articles I and II AND the War Powers Resolution
JOT DOWN notes from other three articles…
2. Share the main idea (thesis) of each of the four articles, and
highlight the major points.
3. What areas of agreement are shared by the four articles?
Key differences?
4. In general, how much relative power should the President and
Congress exercise in waging war? (Write a reflection)
• Given that there was no declaration of war on Iraq, should
Congress be able to “defund the war in order to bring it to an
end”?
• If Congress did approve the war, should the President then be
completely in charge of “managing it”?
• Should the “era of open-ended, unilateral war making by
Presidents” be brought to an end?
• Should there be a Constitutional Convention to update our
ability to wage a modern war?
• Should the War Powers Resolution be a Constitutional
Amendment and NOT federal legislation?
• Article IV, Section 4, “ the US must protect
every state against invasion and domestic
violence”
• Constitution restrains the president’s use of
domestic force- state legislatures must
request federal troops before President
can send them in
• Not absolute
• Eisenhower and the integration of Little Rock
High School- Arkansas
• G.W. Bush and New Orleans post Hurricane
Katrina-2005
• President Obama 2010- BP Deepwater
Horizon
• Presidents tend to exercise unilateral power
by declaring a “state of emergency”
• Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution which states
that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and
pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of
impeachment"
• Reprieves: Cancel or postpone a sentence (charged and
convicted)
• Death penalty
• Amnesty: Forgiveness if you have not been convicted or charged
of anything yet.
• Carter offered amnesty draft dodgers
• Andrew Johnson granting amnesty to the entire South
• Pardons: legal forgiveness of a crime…charged or convicted
• Ford pardoning Nixon
Oversight: Domestic Policy
• Senate must vote to confirm Federal
Judges
Article II of the Constitution provides that
the President "shall nominate, and by
and with the Advice and Consent of the
Senate, shall appoint...Judges of the
supreme Court and such inferior courts as
the Congress may from time to time
ordain and establish."
• The Tensions of Judicial
Appointments
• Senate and lower court appointments
/ role?
• How does “Senatorial Courtesy”
impact lower court appointments?
• General pattern for confirmation of S.C. justices
• List compiled / who’s consulted?
• Committee on the Judiciary – Full Senate
• Filibuster
60 votes to end (cloture)
• Bork’s Impact on the Confirmation Process (7:30)
• “Borked” : illustrated political nature of confirmation
• TV advertisement on Bork
• Impact of life term on confirmation process
• Why is Roe v. Wade a perennial question during the
nomination process?
Expressed
• Appoint ambassadors
(Senate approval)
• Meets foreign leaders
• Recognize foreign countries
• FDR and USSR
• Negotiate treaties (Senate
2/3 vote to reject or
approve)
• Treaty of Versailles
• rejected
Implied
• Executive agreements:
between pres. and head of
state
• Don’t need approval
• Not binding on future presidents
• “ The executive power shall
be vested in a President…
must see that all powers are
faithfully executed…power
to appoint and remove
executive branch officials…”
• CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER---AKA--- CEO OF
THE NATION
• Enforces federal laws
• Decides priorities for enforcement
• DEA shouldn’t focus on busting medical
dispensaries
• Oversees cabinet departments, but can’t
create a new cabinet department-only
Congress can do that
• Appoints (with consent of Senate)
• Cabinet members
• Heads of independent agencies
• Ambassadors / diplomats
• Federal judges, US marshals, Federal
attorneys
• Removal power
• Power to dismiss most officials they appoint
• Not federal judges
• Independent regulatory agencies
• SEC
• Social Security
• Executive Privilege
• President can withhold information if they deem it too sensitive to share
• When should it be allowed?
• Used for evil?
• US v. Nixon
• Not tested in the courts until 1974 Watergate affair, during which
President Nixon refused congressional demands that he turn over secret
White House tapes that congressional investigators thought would est his
complicity in illegal activities
• U.S. v. Nixon- ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes
• President complied with the order and was forced to resign from office
• Seen by some as a blow to the power of the pres- HOWEVER- Court’s
ruling recognized for the first time the validity of a claim of executive
privilege even though it did NOT apply in this case (future cases it does)
• Future administrations have cited this case when defending their executive
privilege…
Implied powers
Expressed powers
• Required to give a State of the Union
address to Congress
• Has become a great way to initiate
legislation
• Veto legislation
• Veto / pocket veto
• Less than 10% of veto's have been
overridden- 2/3 of BOTH houses
needed to override VETO
• use the threat of a veto to get changes
into bill
• Riders may be inserted into a bill to
persuade the Pres to sign it into law
• Line item veto:
• Executive Orders: orders issued
by the President that have the
force of law
• FDR: internment of Japanese
Americans
• Clinton: Don’t ask, Don’t tell
• Obama: Federal employees
$10.10 per hour
FOX news take on these orders!
(9:00)
• Signing Statement- A
presidential document that
reveals what the pres thinks of
new law and how it ought to
be enforced!
• President is seen as Chief legislator
• White House staff work directly to lobby members of Congress
• Bully pulpit : Use position to draw public attention to certain issues
• TR and the 3C’s
• FDR: New Deal and the 3 R’s
• Reagan: “Great communicator” and tax reform
• Meet with Majority and Minority leaders of Congress
• Set policy agenda: items you want Congress to focus on…
• Issues Obama is currently focusing on
• Gun control
• Immigration reform
• Minimum wage
• Divided Government
• Presidency and Congress are
controlled by different parties
• Also occurs when the 2 Houses of
Congress are controlled by
different parties (we have this
now)
• Consequences
• Difficult for presidents to make
appointments
• See next slide
• Hyper partisanship makes it difficult
for moderate from both sides to
work together
• Gridlock
• “do –nothing Congress”
• Low Congressional approval
•
•
•
•
Use the media to gain support for policy they want to promote
Use the threat of a veto
Logrolling / make deals with leadership in Congress
Garner the support of interest groups
A President must have the power to persuade!!!!
- How must a President be perceived to be able to
persuade Congress and the public to support their
agenda?
- What traits wouldn’t work well?
• Like Madison (1787), #10 ), Neustadt uses a
pluralist view to understand politics.
• The president's primary power is to persuade
and bargain, not to command.
• When a president has to resort to
commanding people, he is showing weakness.
• "The essence of a President's persuasive task
is to convince such men that what the White
House wants of them is what they ought to do
for their sake and on their authority“
• The American system is one of shared, not
separated, powers (Madison 1787, #51)
• The most important source of power that a president has when it
comes to shaping policy is the public
• President has easy access to the media
• One person, as opposed to 535 members of Congress
Obama trying to garner public support for his gun control agenda
What is his agenda?
How is he using the “bully pulpit” to push his agenda?
OBAMA and Newtown (18 minutes)
• Constraints a President faces while trying to shape policy
• 1. Congress has most of the power due to the process a bill goes through
to become a law
• Presidents have much more leeway in foreign policy
• Executive agreement
• Commander in chief
• 3. time constraints and the volume of issues our nation must deal with
• Congress has 535 members and committee systems to deal with the
sheer volume of policy, the President is 1 person
• 4. budget constraints
• 5. Unexpected crises
• http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/infopresapp0605-31.html
• General trend = lower at end of presidency, than date of
inauguration
• Tends to bump during re-election
• Exceptions: Eisenhower, Reagan, Clinton
• Article I, Section 2
Clause 5: The House of Representatives … shall have the sole Power of
Impeachment.
• Article I, Section 3
Clause 6: The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.
When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation.
When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall
preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of
two thirds of the Members present.
Clause 7: Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further
than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any
Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party,
(defendant), convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to
Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.
• Who can be impeached?
• Pres., VP, all civil officers (basically all federal
officials)
• What are impeachable offenses?
• Article II Section 4- “Bribery, treason, and high
crimes and misdemeanors”
• High crimes and misdemeanors very vague!
• 2 presidents impeached, who?
I DID NOT HAVE
SEXUAL RELATIONS
WITH THAT
WOMAN!!!
Ummm….
A bill of impeachment is
introduced by a member of
Congress and referred to the
Judiciary Committee by the
Speaker of the House
• Sept 9, 1998:
The independent counsel,
Kenneth W. Starr, sends a
report to the House saying
he has found "substantial and
credible information" that
may constitute grounds for
impeachment of President
Clinton. The House forwards
the report to the House
Judiciary Committee.
Step 2
Committee votes to see if
they should hold a hearing to
investigate the charges (kind
of like a grand jury) , simple
majority of committee
members
Step 3
If they vote in favor of
proceeding it goes to the full
House to confirm a hearing
should be held (this isn’t the
trial)
October 5, 1998
Judiciary committee votes
along party lines (21-16) to
send vote onto the House
floor
October 8, 1998
House votes along party
lines ( 258-176) to proceed
with impeachment hearings
• Step 4
Judiciary Committee holds
hearings into the accusations to
decide what they will formally
charge the president with
• November 9th to December 10th
1998
Hearings are held
Charge President with 4 articles
of impeachment
1. perjury before a
grand
jury concerning his relationship
with Lewinsky
2. perjury in an affidavit
3. Obstruction of Justice, urging
Lewinsky to submit false testimony
4. Abuse of power: misleading
people of US, his cabinet, and
white house staff
• Step 5: Full House votes
on Articles of
impeachment (what to
charge the President
with…
• Simple majority
supporting an article
sends it to the Senate
• Charged Clinton with
perjury and obstruction
of justice
• Question: Are these high
crimes and misdemeanors?
• Some argue yes: “high”
refers to position, not
severity of crime
• Some argue no: “high” refers
to severity of crime, not
position
• Step 6: Trial in the
Senate
Members of House
Judiciary Committee are
the Prosecution, President
has his own lawyers,
Senate is the jury, Chief
Justice is the judge
• Trial takes place from
1/7/99 to 2/12/99
• Step 7: Senate votes on
each Article of
Impeachment
• 2/3 needed to support
removal from office
• Clinton is acquitted,
serves out his term
Article II Section 1
• “In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death,
Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the
said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the
Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death,
Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President,
declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer
shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President
shall be elected.”
• vague?!? Does it mean a new election should be held early? Is the VP
only Acting Pres?
• John Tyler sets precedent when William Henry Harrison dies, arguments over
this in Congress
• Presidential Succession Act of 1947
•
•
•
•
VP
Speaker of the House
Senate Pres Pro tempore
15 cabinet heads in order of creation
• Sec. of state
• Sec. of Homeland Security
• Section 1: the process where the Vice President becomes President if the current President
dies, resigns or is removed from office becomes official.
Section 2: if the Vice Presidency becomes vacant, the President may choose a new Vice
President, who must be voted and approved by Congress before the candidate can have
the position
Section 3: the president may temporarily make the Vice-President the Acting President
with a written declaration. This lasts until a second declaration is made that ends this
condition.
Section 4: this is an emergency provision that allows the Vice President and members of
the Cabinet to declare the President unfit to carry out the duties of the Presidency. The
President may assert his competency (ability to serve) by sending a declaration to
Congress. The Vice President and Cabinet can submit another declaration against the
President, which would force Congress to reach a 2/3 majority that the President is unfit
for office.
Section 4 has never been used, but Sections 1 – 3 have all been used at one time or
another.