President/Executive Department Commons^™

Presidential Control Of Elections, Lisa Marshall Manheim

Articles

An election that is “disputed” lacks two qualities after Election Day: a clear winner and a concession. These elections instead depend on legal processes — recounts, court proceedings, and more — for resolution. As a result, when a sitting President, running for reelection, becomes immersed in a disputed presidential election, he potentially enjoys an advantage over his opponent. He can attempt to exploit the powers of the presidency to push these legal proceedings in his favor. As a practical matter, this advantage can be formidable. A sitting president can resort to his extraordinary bully pulpit, for example, to influence public …

Presidential Control Over Disputed Elections, Lisa Marshall Manheim

Articles

An election that is “disputed” lacks two qualities after Election Day: a clear winner and a concession. These elections instead depend on legal processes — recounts, court proceedings, and more — for resolution. As a result, when a sitting President, running for reelection, becomes immersed in a disputed presidential election, he potentially enjoys an advantage over his opponent. He can attempt to exploit the powers of the presidency to push these legal proceedings in his favor. As a practical matter, this advantage can be formidable. A sitting president can resort to his extraordinary bully pulpit, for example, to influence public …

"Never Before In The History Of This Country?": The Rise Of Presidential Power In The Lula Da Silva And Rousseff Administrations (2003-2016), Mauro Hiane De Moura

Washington International Law Journal

After the impeachment of President Collor de Mello (1990-1992), Brazil finally managed to devise and implement an economic plan that, firmly based on economic science, eradicated the country's long-standing hyperinflation. In the following Cardoso Administration (1995-2002), new regulatory frameworks were introduced in several different sectors—the implementation and oversight of which were entrusted to Regulatory Agencies relatively insulated from the Presidency. Such a model, however, came under attack under the Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and Rousseff (2011-2016) Administrations, ultimately leading to high levels of inflation, a severe recession, and the escalation of public deficit. This article indicates how, during the Lula …

Statutory Anti-Constitutionalism, Maciej Bernatt, Michał Ziółkowski

Washington International Law Journal

The article aims at demonstrating that unconstitutional results, marking an illiberal transformation may be achieved by means of a series of statutory amendments outside the constitutional amendment procedure, when the guardian of the constitution is deactivated. In other words, the evasion of the constitution becomes a means of illiberal change of the legal system. This process is referred to as “statutory anti-constitutionalism.” The article offers a detailed analysis of the legal methods which are used to evade the constitution. These include excessive use of transitional and intertemporal provisions in the statutes, shortening vacatio legis, shortening of constitutionally-determined terms of …

Unenumerated Power And The Rise Of Executive Primacy, Cheng-Yi Huang

Washington International Law Journal

This article argues that contemporary syndromes of constitutional dysfunction do not solely stem from the failures of the controlling executive power. Rather, the tendency of chief executives’ appropriation of power is largely due to the fact that the institutional logic of executive power makes them do so. To govern, the chief executive needs to run the government with power, either political or constitutional. These powers are not always enumerated in the constitution, but would still be regarded as constitutional. This paper argues that the idea of taming unenumerated executive powers by definite constitutional language and text is mostly futile. Drawing …

The Changing Nature Of Bureaucracy And Governing Structure In Japan, Mayu Terada

Washington International Law Journal

This paper analyzes and criticizes changes in the relationship between politics and the bureaucracy, in Japan up to the present from the viewpoint of administrative organizations and related public law system. Drastic changes in the legal system, or legal reform, may sometimes undermine the true intention of the policy and its implementation. Thus, bringing political leadership in administrative decision-making bodies cannot be easily concluded as better or worse than the complete separation of administration and government. To analyze this matter in detail, this paper looks at the following points: 1) Analysis of the operation of the limited political appointment system …

Interpenetration Of Powers: Channels And Obstacles For Populist Impulses, Anya Bernstein

Washington International Law Journal

Discussions of populism often focus on the most visible points of executive power: individual leaders. Yet individual leaders only accomplish things through administrative apparatuses that enable and support their power. Rejecting a political theology that imagines sovereignty as inhering in a single decision-maker, this article turns to political pragmatics focused on the people who populate the government. I draw on interviews with administrators in the government of two successful but quite different democracies. The first is the United States, an old, flagship democratic state. The second is Taiwan, which transitioned from a four-decade military dictatorship to a vibrant democracy in …

Nobody Knew How Complicated: Constraining The President's Power To Re(Shape) Health Reform, Sallie Thieme Sanford

Articles

Beginning on inauguration day, President Trump has attempted an executive repeal of the Affordable Care Act. In doing so, he has tested the limits of presidential power. He has challenged the force of institutional and non-institutional constraints. And, ironically, he has helped boost public support for the ACA’s central features. The first two sections of this article respectively consider the use of the President’s tools to advance and to subvert health reform.

The final two sections consider the forces constraining the administration’s attempted executive repeal. I argue that the most important institutional constraint, thus far, is found in multifaceted actions …

President Trump's Emerging Maritime Policy, Craig H. Allen

Articles

President Donald Trump was elected on a pledge to make America great again. Although he did not enter office with a comprehensive national maritime policy, the elements of such a policy have begun to emerge. Since taking office on January 20, 2017, Trump and the Republican controlled 115th Congress have enacted broad tax reforms and significantly increased defense spending, the first step toward rebuilding the US Navy to 355 ships. The 115th Congress also invoked the Congressional Review Act of 1996 to overturn 14 rules issued by federal agencies during President Obama's term.

Protecting Offshore Areas From Oil And Gas Leasing: Presidential Authority Under The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act And The Antiquities Act, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

For over one hundred years, presidents of both parties have used executive power to protect America’s lands and waters. Until the second half of the twentieth century, however, little attention was given to protecting the marine ecosystem. Federal authority reaches out to two hundred miles or more in the oceans off the United States, covering an area known as the Outer Continental Shelf. Federal interest in the area historically focused on developing oil and gas reserves and ensuring that the area was open to trade and commerce. The area is also very important for indigenous subsistence uses and commercial and …

Taxation And Surveillance: An Agenda, Michael Hatfield

Articles

Among government agencies, the IRS likely has the surest legal claim to the most information about the most Americans: their hobbies, religious affiliations, reading activities, travel, and medical information are all potentially tax relevant. Privacy scholars have studied the arrival of Big Data, the internet-of-things, and the cooperation of private companies with the government in surveillance, but neither privacy nor tax scholars have considered how these technological advances should impact the U.S. tax system. As government agencies and private companies increasingly pursue what has been described as the “growing gush of data,” the use of these technologies in tax administration …

Some Guidance About Federal Agencies And Guidance, Mary Whisner

Librarians' Articles

The federal administrative system is complex and contains ambiguities about what counts as an “agency,” and there is an amorphous border between regulations and guidance. The body of guidance documents (or nonlegislative rules) is growing, both in volume and in importance, and legal researchers should be aware of this important source of authority, as well as its unclear status.

Executive Privilege Under Washington's Separation Of Powers Doctrine, Lee Marchisio

Washington Law Review

Since United States v. Nixon, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized a qualified executive privilege grounded in federal separation of powers. The privilege allows the President to withhold executive branch communications when disclosure would undermine presidential decisionmaking while executing core constitutional duties. Several states have followed the Supreme Court’s lead and adopted an analogous gubernatorial privilege under state constitutional separation of powers. Focusing on Washington State’s well-developed separation of powers doctrine and strong populist history, this Comment argues that the Washington State Supreme Court should recognize a qualified gubernatorial privilege that also respects the state’s long history of citizen …

Adapting To Administrative Law's Erie Doctrine, Kathryn A. Watts

Articles

This Article looks to the federalism context and draws on the federal courts' experience adapting to the Court's landmark decision in Erie Railroad Company v. Tompkins. Much like Brand X, the Court's Erie decision, which commanded federal courts to apply state law in all cases not governed by positive federal law, significantly reduced the lawmaking power of the federal courts by putting the federal courts in the position of interpreting law that they cannot definitively construe. Although Erie seemed simple enough to adhere to when state law provided a clear answer, Erie posed a serious dilemma when federal courts …

Executive Orders And Presidential Commands: Presidents Riding To The Rescue Of The Environment, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

Presidential executive orders are legal and political documents. They are also uniquely personal utterances of the president and the administration. The right words at the appropriate time can motivate and move the human spirit, and they can link this president and this moment to the strongest of ideas. Being personal and tending to the heroic, the executive order can thus be perceived as accomplishing a great public good.

This article will explore the pros and cons of the executive order tool. I will then evaluate a number of executive orders that have impacted contemporary environmental policy. I will conclude by …

The Fda And The Biotechnology Indutry: A Symbiotic Relationship?, Tanya E. Karwaki

Washington Law Review

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory reform has become a controversial, politically charged issue of particular significance to the biotechnology industry. The fundamental factors driving the movement for FDA reform include the prohibitive costs associated with developing a product approved by the FDA and the pressure to participate in the international harmonization of biotechnology product regulations. Two recent Congressional bills, Senator Kassebaum's Food and Drug Administration Performance and Accountability Act of 1995, and Representative Burr's Drug and Biological Products Reform Act of 1996 provide vehicles for analyzing the direction and goals of FDA reform as they apply specifically to the …

Politics And Principles: An Assessment Of The Roosevelt Record On Civil Rights And Liberties, Peter Irons

Washington Law Review

The central focus of this article is on the role played in these episodes by the U.S. Department of Justice, the primary federal agency entrusted with law enforcement duties and powers. In particular, the role of the attorney general as the department's titular head and as the personification of federal enforcement of civil rights and liberties provides this article with its analytic framework. A recent press commentary put this crucial cabinet post in perspective: "More than anyone but the President himself, it is the Attorney General who sets the moral tone of an Administration, symbolizing its commitment or lack of …

The Status Of Statutes Containing Legislative Veto Provisions After Chadha—Does The Eeoc Have The Authority To Enforce The Equal Pay Act And The Age Discrimination In Employment Act?, Tracy Pool

Washington Law Review

After Chadha, the constitutional status of unexercised legislative veto provisions, such as the one in the Reorganization Act of 1977, is uncertain. Part I of this Note examines this uncertainty and concludes that unexercised veto provisions should be held unconstitutional. Part II then examines three possibile methods of limiting the Chadha decision to avoid invalidating the EEOC's authority to enforce the Equal Pay Act and the ADEA.

Labor Law—Executive Legislation In The Federal Procurement System—A.F.L.-C.I.O. V. Kahn, 618 F.2d 784, Cert. Denied, 443 U.S. 915 (1979), Pam Mrkvicka

Washington Law Review

This note first explores prior uses of the section 205(a) powers to support executive orders. Second, it discusses flaws with analogizing from those orders to the wage and price control order, and highlights the missing element of congressional approval in this case. Lastly, it examines constitutional questions posed by the decision. This note concludes that the court was mistaken in finding a close nexus between the FPASA and President Carter's order. In its application of the close nexus test, the court abrogated the statutory standards limiting executive discretion under the FPASA. The court's interpretation of the Act delegates more power …

Washington Law Review Lecture Series—The Constitution And The Presidency, Abe Fortas

Washington Law Review

The Washington Law Review Lecture Series, initiated this year, is designed to bring outstanding speakers to the law school to discuss contemporary legal issues.

Impeachment: A Countercritique, Raoul Berger

Washington Law Review

This article is written primarily in response to the issues raised by Professor Arthur Bestor's review in 49 Washington Law Review 255 (1973) of Professor Berger's book, Impeachment: The Constitutional Problems.

Impeachment, Arthur Bestor

Washington Law Review

A book review essay considering Impeachment: The Constitutional Problems, by Raoul Berger (1973).

Racial Discrimination In Usda Programs In The South: A Problem In Assuring The Integrity Of The Welfare State, M. John Bundy, Allen D. Evans

Washington Law Review

Allowing the rural poor to stay on the land and to better their lives would be one significant contribution to alleviating the problems of the urban ghetto. Yet, at least as regards the southern black farmer and his family, the federal government has not only allowed its welfare farm programs to fail in wholesale fashion, but has acquiesced in and even affirmatively contributed to that failure. This comment offers some empirical data on rural southern life and describes three representative U.S. Department of Agriculture programs and their failures at the local level with regard to the black farmer and his …

The Federal Trade Commission And The Courts [Part 2], Vern Countryman

Washington Law Review

Continuation of the article from volume 17, no 1.

The Federal Trade Commission And The Courts [Part 1], Vern Countryman

Washington Law Review

But a majority of Congress had a still different idea as to what was needed. In their view, the Federal Trade Commission was to have positive powers for the enforcement of new legislation designed to supplement the existing law, in addition to the powers of investigation and publicity contemplated by the President. Accordingly, the plans of the industrial leaders were rejected, as apparently was Mr. William Howard Taft's assurance that the courts were quite capable of handling the entire matter under the Sherman Act, and in 1914 Congress enacted the Federal Trade Commission Act," creating a five-man commission with power …

Judicial Review Of The Fact Findings Of The Federal Trade Commission, William G. Daniels

Washington Law Review

Section 5 of the Trade Commission Act (15 U. S. C. § 45) and Section 11 of the Clayton Act (15 U. S. C. § 21) provide that "The findings of the Commission as to facts, if supported by testimony, shall be conclusive." This follows the form of the usual statutory provision, and its settled interpretation is that the findings of the administrative board, if supported by substantial evidence, are conclusive as to issues of fact. The purpose of the creation of the Trade Commission was largely to establish an administrative tribunal consisting of a body of persons especially qualified …

The Federal Trade Commission, By Gerard C. Henderson (1924), K. E. Leib

Washington Law Review

No abstract provided.