Executive Power

On this date in 1854, the U.S. Navy bombarded and torched the town of Greytown, in present-day Nicaragua. The story behind a resulting federal court opinion reveals much about how presidential naval powers and congressional checks operated in the mid-19th century.

The Trump administration is asserting a new and extreme theory of executive privilege, under which the executive branch has absolute constitutional authority to protect and further the president’s constitutional authority to assert that privilege.

These cases are fact specific and frequently are considerably more complicated than they might seem at first blush.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has denied in part and granted in part a motion for a preliminary injunction against the government's construction of a border wall using funds reprogrammed by the Defense Department, enjoining the secretaries of defense, treasury and homeland security from taking action to construct a wall along certain sections of the U.S.-Mexico border. The opinion is available here and below.