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Helping Ideas Have Consequences: Political And Intellectual Investment In The Unitary Executive Theory, 1981-2000, Amanda L. Hollis-Brusky

Amanda Hollis-Brusky

This article explains the remarkable frequency with which the Unitary Executive Theory (UET) was used in the George W. Bush Justice Department (2001-2008) as legal justification for Executive branch action. It shows how this seemingly sudden turn in Executive branch interpretation was actually the result of a series of long-term political investments by key conservative and libertarian actors who worked to develop the intellectual underpinnings of the UET first within the Reagan and George H. W. Bush Justice Departments and then within the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy. Specifically, it draws on interview data and other ethnographic evidence …