Executive Power

On Friday, President Donald Trump sign a memorandum under the Defense Production Act ordering the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to "use any and all authority available under the Act to require General Motors Company to accept, perform, and prioritize contracts or orders for the number of ventilators that the Secretary determines to be appropriate." The memorandum is pursuant to an executive order signed by the president on March 18.

The House of Representatives has filed its brief before the Supreme Court in the consolidated cases Donald J. Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP, et al and Donald J. Trump v. Deutsche Bank AG, et al, regarding whether the court should invalidate four subpoenas to the companies from three separate House committees regarding President Trump's financial and business reports. The committees ask the court to affirm the lower courts' judgments that the House can issue the subpoenas, and argue that, "Many momentous separation-of-powers disputes have come before this Court . . .

The Millard Fillmore administration’s diplomatic machinations toward Hawaii are a curious example of the executive branch regarding itself as constitutionally empowered to threaten war but constrained from unilaterally carrying out that threat.

On Nov. 14, President Trump petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari to hear a case involving Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance's subpoena to Trump's accounting firm Mazars for the president's tax returns. The petition filed by the president, a brief in opposition from Vance and an amicus curiae brief from the solicitor general are available below.

Petition for Writ