Category: Presidential Duties
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Presidential War Agencies
Presidential War AgenciesWhile congressional compliance with the President's demand rendered unnecessary an effort on his part to amend the Price Control Act, there were other matters as to which he repeatedly took action within the normal field of congressional powers, not only during the war, …
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Prize Cases
The Prize CasesThe basis for a broader conception was laid in certain early acts of Congress authorizing the President to employ military force in the execution of the laws.1 In his famous message to Congress of July 4, 1861,<a name=t2 href=#f2 targe…
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Prize Cases Impact
Impact of the Prize Cases on World Wars I and IIIn brief, the powers that may be claimed for the President under the Commander-in-Chief Clause at a time of widespread insurrection were equated with his powers under the clause at a time when the United States is engaged in a formally declared foreign…
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Recess Appointments
Recess Appointments (Presidential Duties and Powers)The Recess Appointments Clause was adopted by the Constitutional Convention without dissent and without debate regarding the intent and scope of its terms. In Federalist No. 67, Alexander Hamilton refers to the recess appointment power as "not…
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Reciprocal Trade Agreements
Reciprocal Trade AgreementsThe most copious source of executive agreements has been legislation which provided authority for entering into reciprocal trade agreements with other nations. 1 Such agreements in the form of treaties providing for the rec…
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Removal Power Rationalized
The Removal Power Rationalized (Removal Power, Executive Establishment and Treaties)The tension that had long been noticed between Myers and Humphrey's Executor, at least in terms of the language used in those cases but also to some extent in their holdings, appears to have been ameliorated by t…
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Sanctions Implementing Presidential Directives
Sanctions Implementing Presidential DirectivesTo implement his directives as Commander-in-Chief in wartime, and especially those which he issued in governing labor disputes, President Roosevelt often resorted to "sanctions," which may be described as penalties lacking statutory authorizati…
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Self-Executing Treaty
When Is a Treaty Self-ExecutingSeveral references have been made above to a distinction between treaties as self-executing and as merely executory, in which case they are enforceable only after the enactment of "legislation to carry them into effect." <a name=t1 href=#f1 target="_self…
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Senate Approval
Senate Approval ( Executive Establishment and Treaties)The fact that the power of nomination belongs to the President alone prevents the Senate from attaching conditions to its approval of an appointment, such as it may do to its approval of a treaty. In the words of an early opinion of the Attorney…
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Senate Consent
When Senate Consent Is Complete ( Executive Establishment and Treaties)Early in January, 1931, the Senate requested President Hoover to return its resolution notifying him that it advised and consented to certain nominations to the Federal Power Commission. In support of its action the Senate invoke…
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September 11
Articles of War: Response to the Attacks of September 11, 2001In response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., Congress passed the "Authorization for Use of Military Force," <a name=t1 href=#f1 target=&…
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Power of Congress to Control President
The Power of Congress to Control the President's DiscretionOver the President's veto, Congress enacted the War Powers Resolution,1 designed to redistribute the war powers between the President and Congress. Although ambiguous in some respects…
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President Treaty-Making Power
President Treaty-Making Power and the SenateThe plan that the Committee of Detail reported to the Federal Convention on August 6, 1787 provided that "the Senate of the United States shall have power to make treaties, and to appoint Ambassadors, and Judges of the Supreme Court." <a name=t1 …
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Law of the Land Origin
Origin of the ConceptionHow did this distinctive feature of the Constitution come about, by virtue of which the treatymaking authority is enabled to stamp upon its promises the quality of municipal law, thereby rendering them enforceable by the courts without further action? The short answer is that…
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Lend-Lease Act
The Lend-Lease ActThe most extensive delegation of authority ever made by Congress to the President to enter into executive agreements occurred within the field of the cognate powers of the two departments, the field of foreign relations, and took place at a time when war appeared to be in the offin…