President Bush wasn't the first to use signing statements, but President Bush used them more often than both President Bush predecessors and successors, and, as importantly, President Bush consistently used them to advance an aggressive theory of constitutional limits on Congress' power to interfere with the Executive Branch that was largely a novelty.

Stephen Vladeck

Categorized in : Top News

The idea behind these authorities is that the President is better situated to make those kinds of determinations than Congress, especially when they're time-sensitive, so I think the President's conduct may well be within the letter of the law here. But, as with the National Emergencies Act, I very much doubt this kind of exercise of the authority conferred by the statute is what Congress had in mind.

Stephen Vladeck

us-news

Supreme Court's impossible to disagree with Judge Kavanaugh that, in a perfect world, Congress would take the lead when it comes to investigating misconduct and malfeasance by the President, but what Judge Kavanaugh seems to be implying here is not only that Congress should take the lead, but that the Constitution might itself foreclose independent prosecutors like Independent Counsel Ken Starr and Special Counsel Mueller.

Stephen Vladeck

politics

His views of the President's constitutional authority would call into question at least some of the means through which a sitting president can be investigated, there's no question other investigative avenues remain, especially through Congress. But the' unitary executive' theory that Judge Kavanaugh has so often embraced is difficult to reconcile with even a somewhat-independent prosecutor within the executive branch who doesn't serve at the pleasure of the President.

Stephen Vladeck

politics

Supreme Court has reaffirmed the President's sweeping statutory authority when Supreme Court comes to deciding who may and who may not travel to the United States, authority that both President President Donald Trump and future presidents will surely rely upon to justify more aggressive immigration restrictions.

Stephen Vladeck

us-news

They're gon na lose even though they win, and that's the chilling effect, they face this specter of potentially endless ruinous litigation that it just can't stop. They can't avoid ; they can't preempt.

Stephen Vladeck

Even if these lawsuits can't get all the way to the end to blocking this on a statewide level, there's still value, even if( abortion providers) can't get all the relief that they need, there's value in getting more relief than none.

Stephen Vladeck

The result would be to strand a whole bunch of undocumented immigrants at bus stations, abbott's not proposing that the state is going to hold them. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott can't force the federal government to hold them. So instead Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is just going to make it harder for the federal government to execute the policy choices it has made.

Stephen Vladeck

That order, like its predecessors dating back to the 1940s, imposes both procedural and substantive requirements on what information can properly be classified -- and how. Suffice it to say,' because I said it' is not one of the appropriate criteria for classifying national security information.

Stephen Vladeck

Congress has delegated The President a bunch of powers for emergencies, but this isn't among them.

Stephen Vladeck