February 13, 2020

Unilateralist Presidencies and Submissive Legislatures: Rebalancing Our Separation of Powers

On February 6, 2020, ACS held a symposium on the future of separation of powers and how Congress might once again perform its core legislative duties.

Opening Keynote: Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-8)

Panel 1: The Rise of the Unilateralist Presidency

Featuring: Kimberly Atkins, Hon. Brad Miller, Erica Newland, Victoria Nourse, and Sai Prakash.

Panel 2: Protector-in-Chief: Cooption of National Security by the Executive Branch

Featuring: Mieke Eoyang, Gene Healy, Marty Lederman, Hina Shamsi, and Bijal Shah.

Lunch Keynote: Hon. Jeh Charles Johnson, former Secretary of Homeland Security

Panel 3: Imagining a Resurgent Congress

Featuring: Simon Lester, Reta Jo Lewis, Zachary Price, Kate Shaw, and Donald Sherman.

Background

Read a summary of the event. The scope of presidential power was a key source of debate among the framers of the Constitution. Some, like Hamilton, advocated for an “elective monarch,” while Benjamin Franklin supported a “plural presidency” of more than one executive, and until very near the end of the convention, the president was to be elected by the Congress. Ultimately, it is the legislative power described in the Constitution’s first article that is most expansive, including the powers to declare war, to borrow and coin money, and to make “all laws necessary” to carry out its powers. Almost 250 years later, with the Trump administration vowing to fight “all the subpoenas” issued by Congress in the impeachment inquiry, successive administrations sparring with Congress over presidential decisions to engage in military action abroad without congressional authorization, and the U.S. Attorney General’s (and perhaps some Supreme Court Justices’) embracing of the “unitary executive theory,” where does that leave Congress? Can it conduct effective oversight of the executive branch? How might it reassert itself as a muscular branch of government? Our symposium discussed the state of the future of separation of powers and imagined how Congress might once again perform its core legislative duties.