The Imperial Presidency and the Constitution

Gary Schmitt; Joseph M. Bessette; Andrew E. Busch

doi:10.5771/9781538101032

Summary

Time and again, in recent years, the charge has been made that sitting presidents have behaved “imperially,” employing authorities that break the bounds of law and the Constitution. It is now an epithet used to describe presidencies of both parties. The Imperial Presidency and the Constitution examines this critical issue from a variety of perspectives: analyzing the president’s role in the administrative state, as commander-in-chief, as occupant of the modern “Bully Pulpit,” and, in separate essays, addressing recent presidents’ relationship with Congress and the Supreme Court. The volume also deepens the discussion by taking a look back at Abraham Lincoln’s expansive use of executive power during the Civil War where the tension between law and necessity were at their most extreme, calling into question the “rule of law” itself. The volume concludes with an examination of how the Constitution’s provision of both “powers and duties” for the president can provide a roadmap for assessing the propriety of executive behavior.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2017
ISBN-Print: 978-1-5381-0102-5
ISBN-Online: 978-1-5381-0103-2
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 178
Product type: Edited Book

1. Contents No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 4
1 Lincoln No access Pages 5 - 22
2 The Administrative State and the Imperial Presidency No access Pages 23 - 50
3 Constitutional Structure, Political History, and the Invisible Congress No access Pages 51 - 74
4 Can the Supreme Court Check Abuses of Executive Power? No access Pages 75 - 104
5 Going to War No access Pages 105 - 124
6 The Presidency and the New “Bully Pulpit” No access Pages 125 - 144
7 The Imperial Executive in Constitutional Democracy No access Pages 145 - 166
Index No access Pages 167 - 174
About the Editors and Contributors No access Pages 175 - 178