On This Presidents Day, Stop Worshiping the Imperial Presidency
Presidents aren't saints. They aren't monarchs. They aren't celebrities. And they aren't your friends.
Presidential Power
Biden's Orders Continue the Presidency's Slide Toward Elective Monarchy
If the refusal of lawmakers to enact a president's policies is justification for unilateral executive action, then a slide toward elective monarchy is inevitable.
Will Democrats Embrace the Imperial Presidency Now That Their Guy Is in Charge?
Partisans who abandon constitutional principles because they prove inconvenient are in for a rude surprise when the other team wins.
Biden's Mask Mandate Retreat Is a Hopeful Sign
The president acknowledges that there are limits to executive power, even during a public health emergency.
Pelosi Says Congress Is 'Prepared' To Impeach Trump Again Unless Pence Invokes 25th Amendment
In a Thursday afternoon announcement, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) said Trump committed "an act of sedition" by inciting a riot on Wednesday afternoon.
White House Christmas Ornaments
Politics ruining your holidays? Now you can pay for the privilege.
Biden Acknowledges Constitutional Limits to the Power of the Presidency
That’s a rare position for modern White House residents, and not necessarily a popular one with the public.
The Pardon Power May Be Broad, But that Does Not Mean a Self-Pardon Would Be Legit
President Trump pardoned a turkey and an agent of Turkey. Will he give himself a lame duck pardon next?
Presidential Pardons Offer Trump a Way to Go Out on a Positive Note
If Trump isn’t interested, maybe the Biden administration could get started with a few acts of mercy.
Biden and Trump Now Agree: The President Has No Authority To Impose a Nationwide Mask Mandate
If only that signaled a broader respect for legal limits on executive power.
Rejecting Biden's Threat of a Nationwide Mask Mandate, Trump Suddenly Respects Limits on Presidential Power
Both major parties defend the Constitution only when it's convenient.
Trump's Naked Megalomania Continues a Bipartisan Trend
Will his blunt self-aggrandizement reinvigorate concerns about presidents who exceed their powers?
Trump Deploys Lawlessness Against Lawlessness
The president’s heavy-handed response to protests against police brutality belies his promise of "law and order."
Is There Any Limit on the Congressional Subpoena Power?
There was a potentially pivotal exchange in today's Supreme Court oral argument over the House subpoenas seeking the President's financial records.
Trump Can Encourage States to Lift Their COVID-19 Lockdowns, but He Can't Decree That Outcome
The president has a history of asserting powers he does not actually have.
The National Interest, C'est Moi
This inability to agree on the nature of the national interest is endemic not just to the new nationalism, but to all of politics.
Michael Bloomberg and the Imperious Presidency
Until we start denuding the Oval Office, we will continue getting the royals we deserve.
Congress Passed a New North American Trade Pact but Failed To Limit Trump's Tariff Powers
Republicans might rue that mistake when Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders inherits Trump's beefed-up trade authority.
More Impeachments! Dumping Bad Presidents Should Be No Big Deal
"Somehow we've decided that the one job in America that gets the most job protection is the one where you actually get nuclear weapons," says the Cato Institute's Gene Healy.
Don't Freak Out About Impeachment
Americans can lose their jobs for almost anything. Why are we so hesitant to give presidents the boot?
Republicans Are Learning to Love Unconstrained Executive Power
Just like their counterparts in the Democratic Party do!
Impeachment Is Both the Cause and the Effect of a Too-Powerful Presidency
If, at the end of all this, President Mike Pence sits behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, what has been accomplished?
The White House Counsel Is Making Political Arguments, Not Legal Ones
In making the case against the House impeachment inquiry, the White House counsel relies upon a repudiated district court opinion that doesn't even support its argument.
Teaching Trump
Hopefully the White House can refrain from creating any new constitutional conundrums for a semester.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Unite to Defend the Imperial Presidency
The senator and the president she wants to unseat are determined to have their way, regardless of what the law says.
Judge Andrew Napolitano: President Trump Obstructed
The libertarian legal analyst says Trump, like his White House predecessors, has abused executive power in all sorts of ways.
Trump Obstructed Justice, Says Judge Andrew Napolitano
The Fox News legal analyst says the president is abusing executive power.
Standing on the Shoulders of Tyrants
Donald Trump's rhetoric is breathtakingly authoritarian, but so far he's done less than his predecessors to expand executive power.
Trump's 60 Minutes Interview Further Demystifies the Presidency
From the moment he started his improbable run for higher office, Donald Trump has stripped bare all pretensions that politics is about more than "winning."
When the Supreme Court Blessed the Imperial Presidency
The story of how classical liberal Justice George Sutherland enabled executive overreach abroad.
Trump, Reagan, and Why Republicans Flip-Flopped on Free Trade
The Donald is more like The Gipper on trade policy than you think. And not in a good way.
Farewell to Nicholas von Hoffman, the Newsman Who Got Fired for Comparing Nixon to a Dead Mouse
Friday A/V Club: Columnist, broadcaster, and critic of concentrated power
Trump and the End of the Imperial Presidency
If you look past the shouting and the narcissism, there are clear signs that Trump doesn't have as much power as we all want or fear.
The Buck Stops Over There
In his first year, Donald Trump took presidential blame shifting to new heights.
Rick & Morty Takes on the American Presidency
The hit cartoon depicts how out of control presidential power has gotten.
Trump Launches a Suicidal War on His Own Party
Instead of striving to ingratiate himself with those who hold his fate in their hands, the president seems determined to antagonize them.
The Only Solution to the Trumps' Conflicts of Interest
The heart of the potential for conflicts of interests is not the Trump business empire. It's the presidential power to steer benefits to particular interests.
What Washington's Farewell Address Tells Us About Trump's America (Reason Podcast)
The nation's father warned against "hyper-partisanship, excessive debt and foreign wars" in 1796. Why aren't we paying attention, asks John Avlon.
#ThanksObama: 5 Scary Powers Trump Will Take Over as President
Obama's power grabs are now Trump's precedents.
If You're Freaking Out Over Donald Trump's Presidential Powers, Thank a Liberal!
Where were Democrats when Obama was going power-mad? Egging him on, mostly.
Trump and the Power of the Presidency
The case for limited government is more compelling than ever.
President Obama Warns Trump About Executive Orders, Unilateral Foreign Policy and War Making
The president warns president-elect against following in his path.
It Doesn't Matter Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump Is Worse
Same song, different strongman
Cancel the State of the Union
You may want to skip the State of the Union address and prepare for something humbler, like the Super Bowl.