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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Limits Of Executive Power, Robert J. Reinstein
The Limits Of Executive Power, Robert J. Reinstein
American University Law Review
Justice Jackson’s concurring opinion in The Steel Seizure Case has taken on iconic status among legal scholars and had been adopted by the Supreme Court as the governing framework for evaluating presidential power. But Jackson’s principles are conclusory, do not rest on any historical foundation, and raise as many questions as they answer. He fails to examine, much less justify, the existence or scope of implied presidential powers, nor does he meaningfully explain the extent to which those powers are subject to congressional regulation and override. I apply novel originalist methodologies to answer those unexamined questions, with important consequences to …
De-Cloaking Torture: Boumediene And The Military Commissions Act, Alan W. Clarke
De-Cloaking Torture: Boumediene And The Military Commissions Act, Alan W. Clarke
San Diego International Law Journal
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) marked the high tide and endgame for hiding torture. It's unraveling did more to uncover the Bush administration's secret interrogation practices than did the political change in Washington. International and domestic backlash against the government's embrace of harsh interrogation techniques, frequently rising to the level of torture, also played a role. However, the Supreme Court's decisions ending in Boumediene v. Bush played the decisive role. Boumediene, and the Supreme Court decisions that led up to it, made inevitable that which politics had left contingent and reversible. It also provided legal and political cover.
Examining Presidential Power Through The Rubric Of Equity, Eric A. White
Examining Presidential Power Through The Rubric Of Equity, Eric A. White
Michigan Law Review
In this Note I propose a method to examine presidents' actions taken outside the normal bounds of executive power by employing the general rubric of equity, in an attempt to find when the president acts with what I term "practical legitimacy." This would be a new category for executive actions that, while perhaps arguably illegal, are so valuable that we want to treat them as legitimate exercises of executive power. To do so, I first examine the history of equity, noting the many relevant parallels to our modern conception of executive power In light of these parallels, I argue that …
Fade To Black: The Formalization Of Jackson's Youngstown Taxonomy By Hamdan And Medellin, Michael J. Turner
Fade To Black: The Formalization Of Jackson's Youngstown Taxonomy By Hamdan And Medellin, Michael J. Turner
American University Law Review
This Comment argues that the Court’s holding in Medellin modifies Jackson’s tripartite taxonomy by effectively eliminating the “zone of twilight.” By requiring a “systematic, unbroken, executive practice, long pursued to the knowledge of the Congress and never before questioned,” the Court is essentially extending the first category—executive action with the express or implied authorization of Congress—to cover the middle “zone of twilight,” at odds with the very purpose of the zone. Additionally, the Comment argues that Hamdan establishes Congress’s “disabling” power in the third category, which, combined with Medellin’s interpretation, crates a new standard for Jackson’s taxonomy, one moor similar …