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Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Northwestern University Law Review
Constitutional law; election law; campaign finance; administrative law
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Accountability Claims In Constitutional Law, Nicholas O. Stephanopoulos
Accountability Claims In Constitutional Law, Nicholas O. Stephanopoulos
Northwestern University Law Review
Several of the Supreme Court’s most controversial constitutional doctrines hinge on claims about electoral accountability. Restrictions on the President’s power to remove agency heads are disfavored because they reduce the President’s accountability for agency actions. Congress cannot delegate certain decisions to agencies because then Congress is less accountable for those choices. State governments cannot be federally commandeered because such conscription lessens their accountability. And campaign spending must be unregulated so that more information reaches voters and helps them to reward or punish incumbents for their performances.
There is just one problem with these claims. They are wrong—at least for the …