The President Has Usurped the Constitutional Power of Congress. A Debate
Description
Article I of the U.S. Constitution begins: "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States." It then enumerates these powers, which include the power to tax, declare war, and regulate commerce. "In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates," James Madison, one of the key architects of the Constitution, wrote in the Federalist Papers in 1788. "The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity, and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex." More than two centuries later, however, some argue that modern U.S. politics and law tell a quite different story. With executive orders, administrative regulations, creative interpretations of federal statutes, and executive agreements with other nations, they claim, the president, not Congress, is in effect wielding the most potent legislative power. Indeed, the Supreme Court is currently poised to decide whether President Obama's unilateral immigration actions subverted Congress's authority and flouted his constitutional duty to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." Others, however, deny that either Obama or other recent presidents have exercised legislative power. Rather, they argue, these presidents have simply invoked well-established precedents to take executive actions to apply the law. Does Congress's legislative authority still predominate? Or is this the era of the imperial presidency? Has the president usurped the constitutional power of Congress?
Runtime
1 hr 26 min 35 sec
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