{"id":1354,"date":"2018-12-25T08:55:20","date_gmt":"2018-12-25T13:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=1354"},"modified":"2018-12-25T08:55:23","modified_gmt":"2018-12-25T13:55:23","slug":"one-president-one-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2018\/12\/25\/one-president-one-power\/","title":{"rendered":"One President, One Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Merry Christmas!!! \u00a0Here’s a wonky one about the\u00a0Constitution and the President. \u00a0Enjoy – and have a great holiday!!!!!<\/em><\/p>\n

One President, One Power<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an interesting theory, the Unitary Executive Principle. \u00a0And it actually makes some sense.\u00a0 It says that the President of the United States is the Chief Executive of his branch (The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America, US Constitution, Article 2, \u00a71)<\/em>; and therefore everything done by departments, agencies, and members of the Executive Branch are done in his name.\u00a0 So, continues the theory, when the Justice Department investigates other actions of the Executive Branch, particularly the President himself, the investigation is being done with the tacit consent of the President himself, since he is literally investigating himself.<\/p>\n

This would mean that the President can stop any investigation by his branch that he chooses, as he is the ultimate boss.\u00a0 Firing FBI Director James Comey, or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, or Special Counsel Robert Mueller, would all be \u201cOK;\u201d it\u2019s all under his purview as President.<\/p>\n

And it also means that the President is \u201cincapable\u201d of obstructing justice.\u00a0 Any interference or lying he would do to the investigators is \u201cOK;\u201d he\u2019s just lying to his own employees. \u00a0And it allows him to communicate with his employees: \u00a0talking to Acting Attorney General Matt Whittaker about the Mueller Investigation would be just fine. (Note – this would not be true about lying to the Courts or to Congress – as they are separate and co-equal branches. \u00a0 But HIS Justice Department couldn’t bring charges on those lies, as he would be “charging himself.”)<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the basis of the “legal” defense of President Trump. \u00a0Rudy Giuliani tries to explain it, though he often seems to get lost in the process. \u00a0Alan Dershowitz condescendingly \u00a0pushes it on Fox News, and the new candidate for Attorney General, Bill Barr, put the theory at the heart of his unsolicited twenty page memo to the Justice Department and the White House, his “try-out” for the job.<\/p>\n

They say the ONLY way to stop a “criminal” President is through the Impeachment and Removal process of Congress. \u00a0Other than that, to use the famous Trump example, he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and no one would do anything.<\/p>\n

But the Unitary Executive Principal flies in the face of the Constitutional concept of \u201cequal protection\u201d under law (US Constitution, Amendment 14,\u00a71 .)<\/em> \u00a0It also ignores the wording of Article II and the intent of the Founding Fathers.<\/p>\n

The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.\u00a0 (US Constitution, Article 2, \u00a72, paragraph 1).<\/em><\/p>\n

He is the Commander in Chief of the military.\u00a0 That is his \u201ccommanding\u201d role.\u00a0 He may require the opinion of the principal officer of the departments (confirmed by the Senate per Article 2, \u00a72, paragraph 2) <\/em>and while he is invested with the \u201cExecutive Authority,\u201d \u00a0<\/em>that authority is not the absolute power of a king, nor is it constitutionally the same power as Commander-in-Chief.\u00a0 If the founding fathers had wanted it to be, they would have said so (yes \u2013 for this moment I do sound like the Federalist Society!)<\/p>\n

The Founding Fathers never wanted a President who was a \u201cscofflaw,\u201d unwilling to abide by the laws that bind all citizens.\u00a0 They saw the Presidency as a carefully circumscribed protector of those laws, and all citizens.<\/p>\n

The President of the United States is Constitutionally required to \u201c\u2026preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,\u201d (Article 2, \u00a71, paragraph 8.)\u00a0 <\/em>A President who is using the powers of his office to further his own personal gain, or to hide his own criminal activity, is clearly not fulfilling that obligation.\u00a0 A President might legally be able to pardon, but if he does so with the intent of hiding his own crimes, \u00a0he would still be violating the law by obstructing justice.\u00a0 The pardoned person would probably remain pardoned, but the President would have committed an offense.<\/p>\n

The United States NEVER conceived of a Presidency of absolute power.\u00a0George Washington didn\u2019t claim such a thing, and in fact, went to great lengths to avoid it.\u00a0 Abraham Lincoln, faced with the greatest Constitutional crisis of our history, pushed the envelope of executive authority by exercising his plenary power as Commander-in-Chief, but that was quickly reined-in after his death and the end of the war.\u00a0Nixon didn\u2019t even make such a claim as he orchestrated a criminal conspiracy from the Oval Office.\u00a0 He made his deal and left.<\/p>\n

Which, by the way, I would be perfectly content to have Trump do.\u00a0 Conspiracy to defraud the United States, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign country, obstructing justice, lying to Federal investigators, and violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution \u00a0are all crimes he may have committed.\u00a0 Resign and take your family with you.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a deal to be made, letting you keep some of your “Trumpers;” before you put the nation through another Impeachment and our first Removal from office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merry Christmas!!! \u00a0Here’s a wonky one about the\u00a0Constitution and the President. \u00a0Enjoy – and have a great holiday!!!!! One President, One Power It\u2019s an interesting theory, the Unitary Executive Principle. \u00a0And it actually makes some sense.\u00a0 It says that the President of the United States is the Chief Executive of his branch (The executive power … Continue reading “One President, One Power”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOne President, One Power : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2018\/12\/25\/one-president-one-power\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"One President, One Power : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Merry Christmas!!! \u00a0Here’s a wonky one about the\u00a0Constitution and the President. \u00a0Enjoy – and have a great holiday!!!!! One President, One Power It\u2019s an interesting theory, the Unitary Executive Principle. \u00a0And it actually makes some sense.\u00a0 It says that the President of the United States is the Chief Executive of his branch (The executive power … Continue reading "One President, One Power"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2018\/12\/25\/one-president-one-power\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-12-25T13:55:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-12-25T13:55:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dahlman.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marty Dahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@martydahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@martydahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marty Dahlman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2018\\\/12\\\/25\\\/one-president-one-power\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2018\\\/12\\\/25\\\/one-president-one-power\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Marty Dahlman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c\"},\"headline\":\"One President, One Power\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-12-25T13:55:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-25T13:55:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2018\\\/12\\\/25\\\/one-president-one-power\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":912,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2018\\\/12\\\/25\\\/one-president-one-power\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2018\\\/12\\\/25\\\/one-president-one-power\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2018\\\/12\\\/25\\\/one-president-one-power\\\/\",\"name\":\"One President, One Power : Our America - 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