Executive Power

Since our nationÕs founding, we have debated (and have increasingly litigated) the appropriate balance of power among the executive (the President), legislative (Congress), and judicial (the courts) branches of the federal government. Those debates have grown more salient and frequent in recent years. As Congress seems to retreat from its historical policymaking role, presidents increasingly fill that legislative vacuum by pushing their policy agendas through executive orders, agency action, and exercising their discretion to enforce federal laws. And many of those presidential acts have been challenged in federal court, leaving the courts to resolve thorny legal issues with profound policy implications. This seminar will focus on the evolution of presidential power, with a focus on the 21st century. The course has two substantive goals. The first is to familiarize students with the historical aspects of presidential power. The course will cover a host of legal issues involving the president, with some attention paid to historical foundations. The second is to emphasize legal developments involving the president over the last 25 years. Whatever one thinks about any particular president, most would agree that 21st-century presidents have attempted to assert presidential power and authority in new, and oftentimes untested, ways. And by all accounts, that trend shows few signs of abating, especially in the continuing absence of legislative action. Accordingly, the course materials will emphasize legal disputes arising during the Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden Administrations.