Debates over the proper scope of executive power in the United States have been a feature of U.S. law and politics dating back to before the nation’s founding. Article II of the Constitution vests the president with “the executive power” and the power to act as the military’s Commander in Chief, but the post-9/11 presidency has been characterized as a striking expansion of executive power, particularly in the area of national security.
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Over the last week, litigation has piled up relating to the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant parents from children at the U.S. border—and the president's June 20 executive order on the issue is likely to precipitate even more lawsuits.
Why have thoughtful lawyers concluded that the president may constitutionally pardon himself when the conventional determinants of constitutionality so consistently indicate the opposite?
This president’s grants of clemency have debased the pardon power and are an affront to the justice system and the rule of law.
A review of the half-dozen times that the executive branch has addressed the question of whether a president can be prosecuted, indicted or included as an unindicted co-conspirator.
The Constitution gives Trump the power to make the Russia probe go away. It does not give him the power to do so without consequence.
There is no serious argument that Robert Mueller’s appointment violates the Constitution.
In the pardon power, Trump has found a constitutional toy with which he can exercise his authoritarian instincts without coming up against legal limits.
There’s more to be said for the letter the president’s lawyers sent to Robert Mueller than some commentators have acknowledged.
How insulated from public opinion should an unelected agency wielding investigatory and prosecutorial power be?
This Office of Legal Counsel test for unilateral uses of force provides no meaningful constraint on presidential power.