Joe Biden Learns To Love Gun Control by Presidential Fiat
The president's unilateral restrictions are legally dubious and unlikely to "save lives."
Presidential Power
Is More Presidential Power Necessary in the Modern World? A Soho Forum Debate
Stanford University's Terry Moe and the Cato Institute's Gene Healy debate giving fast-track authority to U.S. presidents.
Should U.S. Presidents Have Fast-Track Authority to Get Things Done?
A Soho Forum debate on expanding or restricting presidential powers.
Can a Former President Be Prosecuted for Conduct for which He Was Impeached but not Convicted?
A 2000 OLC memo suggests the answer is "yes."
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.
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.
Justin Amash Introduces Bill To End Forever National Emergencies
Current law can allow the president to route around Congress indefinitely.
Another problem with self-pardons
A "self-pardon" might bring about exactly the prosecution it seeks to avoid.
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.
Be Patient: We Might Not Know Who Won the Election Right Away
Mail-in ballots typically take days or sometimes weeks to be counted, so don't expect results on Election Night this year.
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.
USA Today Op ed Making the Case for Abolishing the Constitutional Requirement that the President Must be a "Natural Born" Citizen
I coauthored it with Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy.
All the President's Papers
A preliminary assessment of Trump v. Mazars and Trump v. Vance.
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."
BREAKING: Supreme Court Decides Trump Financial Records Cases and Fate of Eastern Oklahoma (Updated)
The Supreme Court rejected Donald Trump's claims of immunity, but reaffirmed limits on investigatory powers, and ruled in favor of Native American tribal claims against Oklahoma.
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.
Justin Amash Becomes the First Libertarian Member of Congress
In an interview, the freshly-minted presidential candidate talks abortion, the "spoiler" charge, and Joe Biden's flip-flopping, while insisting that 2020 is a "winnable race."
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.
Trump Has Secret Emergency Powers?
"Presidential emergency action documents” concocted under prior administrations purport to give him such authority, according to a New York Times op-ed.
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.
On the Money: Presidential Portraiture and Power in D.C.
Kehinde Wiley's pre-presidential works criticized inequalities and hierarchies of power. His presidential portrait doesn't do the same.
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.
Was Trump's Sin Acting "Like a Politician"?
A response to Josh Blackman's New York Times op-ed on the case against Trump (with updates)
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.
New Statement from Checks and Balances on President Trump's Abuse of Office
"We believe the acts revealed publicly over the past several weeks are fundamentally incompatible with the president’s oath of office, his duties as commander in chief, and his constitutional obligation to 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed.'"
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.
Libertarians Forged an Alliance With Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Was It a Deal With the Devil?
Free market reformers and authoritarian nationalists battle it out to reshape Brazil.
Trump Loses Round One in Financial Record Fight
A federal judge rejects the President's attempt to block a Congressional subpoena of his financial records.
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.
