An oft-cited example of the massive growth of executive power in the modern age is the use of executive orders. These are direct commands issued by the President to all of the federal agencies that make up the Executive branch. These agencies include the military, the intelligence community (CIA, DIA, NSA), the federal law enforcement agencies (DEA, FBI, US Marshals’ Service, Secret Service), all of the Cabinet departments, and the committees and commissions whose members are appointed by the President (the FCC, the Federal Reserve Bank, the SEC, the FTC, etc.). Exempt from these orders are those organizations that fall under the control of the Legislative branch and the Judicial branch.

This power has been used more and more frequently by Presidents in modern times. While some of these orders are innocuous such as the orders to award Presidential Medals of Freedom, others are far less benign. Consider two highly controversial executive orders issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Executive Order 6102 which banned private ownership of gold and authorized law enforcement officers to confiscate the private property of both American citizens and foreigners, and Executive Order 9066 ordering the internment of Japanese-American citizens in relocation camps during World War Two. More often than not Congress offers very little resistance to such orders, indeed many members of Congress cheered President Obama’s executive order creating the DACA policy. On rare occasions, however, such as the DACA policy and President Harry Truman’s order for the federal government to seize privately owned steel mills in 1952, the United States Supreme Court acts to declare orders of this sort to be unconstitutional.

Given the continued expansion of Executive branch power and the Nero-like behavior of the ever-weakening Legislative branch, are we still living in a Madisonian republic as described in Federalist 10 and 51? Your assignment for Paper 2 is:

1. Choose one area in which the President has clearly intruded upon what is, according to the Constitution, a power held by Congress. You will need to do some simple research to identify an intrusion of this sort. It is acceptable to use an example from any President, so long as you have some supporting evidence to show that what you are claiming happened really did happen. Please do not use US History textbooks or online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia as your source; newspapers and other professional media sources or peer-reviewed academic journals are what you should rely upon. What you are looking for is a statement of fact, not an opinion-editorial piece that makes wild accusations of unconstitutional behavior by a President. For example, if your source is Sean Hannity, Rachel Maddow, Breitbart, or Vox, please do not use it; these are not reliable journalistic sources, but rather news accumulators and/or editorialists.

2. Once you have identified an example of the President intruding upon Congressional power, explain why your example violates the Constitution. Be sure to quote directly from the Constitution here!

3. Last, explain what you believe the correct remedy to this unconstitutional intrusion should be; do not suggest impeachment, as that simply removes the President from office, it does not actually correct the problem.

Please follow the formatting and other guidelines listed in the instructions for Paper 1. The grading rubric will essentially be identical to that used in Paper 1. Should you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me. This paper will be due by Saturday, August 10 at 11:59 PM.