President/Executive Department Commons^™

Constitutional Law - Right To Travel - Authority Of Secretary Of State To Deny Passports, Arnold Henson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner's application for a passport was denied under §51.135 of the Passport Regulations promulgated by the Secretary of State on the grounds that he was a Communist and that he had a record of consistent and prolonged adherence to the Communist Party line. The letter of denial stated that before a passport would be issued, a non-communist affidavit as provided for in the Regulations would be required. Following petitioner's refusal to file the affidavit the State Department informed him that until one was filed his application would receive no further consideration. Petitioner thereupon brought an action for declaratory relief in …

Constitutional Law - Executive Powers - Use Of Troops To Enforce Federal Laws, Robert H. Elliott Jr., S.Ed., Richard I. Singer S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The recent use of federal troops in Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce the order of a federal district court requiring school integration has occasioned widespread controversy throughout the nation. It is the purpose of this comment to examine the constitutionality of such action and to consider its broader implications with respect to federal-state and congressional-executive relationships.

The Legal Status Of The Red Cross, Wesley A. Sturges

Michigan Law Review

Red Cross is a term well known in the world at large; so is the heraldic emblem of the red cross on a white background. Many people in many lands use them to indicate and symbolize a variety of humanitarian purposes, principles and services. When the term is used as a proper name, generally it identifies an organization which is lawfully authorized to carry out those purposes and services under that name. Organizations by that name have been accorded exclusive authority to carry out the given humanitarian programs, exclusive authority to use the words, whether as a proper name or …

Federal Employee Invention Rights - Time To Legislate, Marcus B. Finnegan, Richard W. Pogue

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this article to review judicial standards applicable to the determination of rights in inventions made by employees of the federal government, to note statutory provisions affecting the problem, to examine the content and effect of the present Executive program for determining such rights, to review and evaluate two fundamental and conflicting theories in this field, and to propose legislation establishing appropriate standards and procedures. This topic is believed to have general interest because, in addition to the urgencies suggested above, the problem touches some of the basic legal philosophy underlying the United States patent system.

Corwin & Koenig: The Presidency Today, Robert A. Dahl

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Presidency Today. By Edward S. Corwin and Louis W. Koenig.

Incidents Of The Government-Servant Relationship, Ivor L.M. Richardson

Michigan Law Review

The procedures developed in the past five years to meet the threat of communist infiltration into public employment have focused attention on the position of persons working for the federal government. However, the loyalty program and the general problem of dismissal are not the only aspects of federal employment which raise important issues. Other aspects of the government-servant relationship may be of even greater importance to the civil servant in practice. For instance, what are his legal rights to his salary or to his pension if the government refuses to pay? Can he secure redress if he is suspended from …

Administrative Agencies And The Court, Frank E. Cooper

Michigan Legal Studies Series

The limits which courts place on the powers of administrative tribunals have particular significance to practicing attorneys and law students. It is largely to the extent that such limits are imposed, that our government remains a government of laws and not a government of men.

The following pages have been written to describe the standards which the courts impose upon administrative agencies, thereby controlling and limiting their powers. More particularly, the writer has sought: (1) to bring together the leading cases in which the courts have laid down the principles that govern frequently litigated questions in contests between the agencies …

Executive Proclamations And Orders-Federal Register, Everett S. Brown

Michigan Law Review

On July 26, 1935, President Roosevelt signed H. R. 6323, "to provide for the custody of Federal proclamations, orders, regulations, notices, and other documents, and for the prompt and uniform printing and distribution thereof." To date, there has been no government serial publication containing all of the Executive orders signed by the President. The need for such a publication had been frequently pointed out, but to no avail. Legal complication resulting from the rapidly rising flood of executive and administrative orders issued to carry into effect the President's New Deal program led to the framing of H. R. 6323. The …

Executive Power In Emergencies, Maurice S. Culp

Michigan Law Review

The events of the last few months indicate that the American chief executive is capable of vigorous action in emergencies. The executive frequently has to use the armed forces of the State or Nation in the performance of his duty to see that the laws are faithfully executed in troubled districts, but it is a new experience to have the governors and the President take emergency measures in combatting a depression. The banking crisis, which first received executive notice in Nevada last November and which attained alarming proportions with Governor Comstock's "bank holiday" in Michigan, culminated in the national holiday …

Constitutional Law-Power Of President To Approve A Bill After Final Adjournment

Michigan Law Review

The final adjournment of the 71st Congress occurred on March 4th, 1931. The day following, President Hoover signed Private Bill No. 510 (46 Stat. 2163) giving the Court of Claims jurisdiction to adjudicate the claims of one Edwards against the government. The question of the bill's validity was presented to the Supreme Court on certificate from the Court of Claims, and it was held valid. Edwards v. United States, (U.S. 1932) 52 Sup. Ct. 627.

Constitutional Law-Conclusiveness Of Consent Of Senate To Presidential Appointment

Michigan Law Review

On December 3, 1930, President Hoover submitted to the Senate the name of George Otis Smith as chairman and member of the Federal Power Commission, which Congress had created by an act approved June 23, 1930. On December 20, 1930, the Senate in open executive session voted to advise and consent to Smith's nomination. The president pro tem. announced that the President would be notified, and there was no objection. On the same day it was ordered that all resolutions of confirmation that day passed be forwarded "forthwith" to the President. The secretary of the Senate formally notified the …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

Congress And The National Administration, John A. Farlie

Michigan Law Review

Under the Constitution of the United States, Congress is vested with legislative powers; and under the classical doctrine of the separation of powers, it is primarily a law-making organ. A recent writer on government has, however, analyzed its functions under seven heads, as follows: as a constituent assembly, a canvassing board and electoral college, an organ of public opinion, a board of directors, an organ of legislation, an executive council, and a high court of justice. In its capacity as board of directors, he also states that "the whole power of direction, supervision and control of administrative affairs is legally …

Pardons In Impeachment Cases, Maurice Taylor Van Hecke

Michigan Law Review

A year ago, Governor Miriam Ferguson, of Texas, approved an act of the legislature of that state, the gist of which reads as follows:

"That every person against whom any judgment of conviction has heretofore been rendered by the Senate of the State of Texas in any impeachment case, shall be and is hereby granted a full and unconditional release of any and all acts and offenses of which he was so convicted by said Senate of the State of Texas, upon any charge or proceedings of impeachment.

"That any and all penalties or punishment inflicted by or resulting from …

The Technique Of Judicial Appointment, Harold J. Laski

Michigan Law Review

It is difficult to overestimate the significance of the judiciary in the modern state. The work of the executive has become so vast, the powers delegated to it by the legislature are so wide, that judges are, perhaps more than at any previous time, the real safeguard of personal liberty. It is only necessary to recall cases like Coppage v. Kansas, or R. v. Halliday, to realize how nearly judicial activity goes to the very heart of freedom. That is, of course, even more the case when, as with America, the constitution of the state is written, and …

The Judicial Review Of Executive Acts, Albert Levitt

Michigan Law Review

The relation of the judiciary to the executive branch of the Government is a perplexing one. According to the Constitution, the government of the United States is threefold in character, legislative, executive and judicial. Each of these is supposed to be independent of the others. One cannot usurp the function of any one of the others. At the same time, this is a "Government of laws and not of men." It is equally true that this is a government of laws and not of political subdivisions or of the subdivisions of governmental mechanisms. Legislators, executives and judiciary must abide by …

Legislation And Judicial Decision, Rudolf Stammler

Michigan Law Review

The discussions of the theme indicated by the title usually start from Montesquieu's theory of the three powers. This famous doctrine is developed in his work "De 1' esprit des lois" (1748) Bk. II, Ch. 6. This chapter is entitled "Of the English Constitution". It discusses however all states in general. In every state there are three sorts of powers, the legislative authority, the executive authority in matters dependent upon the law of nations, and the executive authority in everything dependent upon civil law. The last Montesquieu calls the judicial power, while the one mentioned in the second place is …

Unrecognized Government Or State In English And American Law (Part 1), Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

From the decision of this novel case, reported as Pelzer v. United Dredging Co., we may infer that the New York courts regard unrecognized Mexico as a sort of legal vacuum. In granting the corporation's motion for judgment on the pleadings, the Supreme Court said: "The administratrix plaintiff is an officer of a foreign court. It is syllogistically true that if the foreign court has no recognized power here she may not assert a right derived through her appointment therefrom. The Mexican government is not de facto here, since recognition alone can make it so. It may have all the …

Unrecognized Government Or State In English And American Law (Part 2), Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

PROBABLY no one in the British Empire or the United States would question the doctrine that it belongs exclusively to the political departments to recognize new governments or states. The difficulties involved are those which arise in the application of a doctrine so broadly stated. Not every situation involving an unrecognized government or state requires the decision of a question of recognition. If the decision of a political question is not involved, then it is entirely proper for the courts to take cognizance of a mere de facto government or state. In what situations may the courts appropriately take account …

The Supreme Court's Adjudication Of Constitutional Issues In 1921-1922, Thomas Reed Powell

Michigan Law Review

The power of Congress over the territories was involved in three cases. Balzac v. Porto Rico held that Porto Rico has not been "incorporated" into the United States so as to make applicable the constitutional requirement of trial by jury in criminal cases. This had been substantially settled in some of the Insular Cases, leaving only the question whether the situation had since been changed. In holding that it had not, Chief Justice Taft placed chief reliance on the absence of any explicit declaration by Congress and on the fact that in the Organic Act of Porto Rico of March …

Indemnity Act Of 1863 A Study In The War-Time Immunity Of Governmental Officers, James G. Randall

Michigan Law Review

One of the familiar measures of the Union administration during the Civil War was the suspension of the habeas corpus privilege and the consequent subjection of civilians to military authority. The essential irregularity of such a situation in American law is especially conspicuous when one considers its inevitable sequel-namely, the protection of military and civil officers from such prosecution as would normally follow invasion of private rights and actual injury of persons and property. Such protection was supplied by a bill of indemnity passed in 1863, and this law, with its amendment of i866, forms a significant chapter in the …

Termination Of War, John M. Mathews

Michigan Law Review

The termination of war must, at the outset, be distinguished Ifrom the termination of hostilities or actual warfare. As has been said, war is "not the mere employment of force, but the existence of the legal condition of things in which rights are or may be prosecuted by force. Thus, if two nations declare war one against the other, war exists, though no force whatever may as yet have been employed."' Similarly, it follows that, although actual hostilities have ceased, the status of war may continue until terminated in some regular way recognized by international law as sufficient for that …

United States Department Of State, John M. Mathews

Michigan Law Review

In the conduct of foreign relations, the President, though ultimately responsible to the people for the general success or failure of such conduct, is unable, of course, to give his personal attention to any except what he deems to ,be the most important and momentous questions of policy. For handling the great mass of routine matters and even for the determination of many questions of policy which are of considerable importance, he is dependent upon the assistance of the agencies supplied for that purpose. These agencies are, principally, the department of state, the diplomatic service, and the consular service. These …

British War Cabinets, John A. Fairlie

Michigan Law Review

During the progress of the present world war there has been a remarkable series of developments in the British Cabinet and, ministry, involving not only many changes of personnel but also fundamental alterations in the constitution of the Cabinet and its relations to Parliament. An analysis of these is not only of interest as an important phase of the history of the war, and the evolution of political institutions; but is also of value in dealing with problems and proposals for governmental reorganization in the United States.

Power Of The President Over Foreign Affairs, Allen Welsh Dulles

Michigan Law Review

In a recent article former Assistant Attorney General James M. Beck challenges the constitutionality of the measures which President Wilson has taken in the carrying out of the foreign affairs policy of this government. While his criticism is especially directed against the action of the President in appointing such confidential agents as John Lind and Colonel House without the consent of the Senate, he makes the sweeping assertion that the President must share the general control of foreign affairs with the Senate. Mr. Beck's position is clearly shown in the following quotations from his article: "Those provisions of the Constitution …

Note And Comment, John B. Waite, Henry Rottschaefer, Roswell B. O'Harra, Leslie C. Mcclelland, Russell B. James, Hollis Harshman

Michigan Law Review

The Completion of a Contract by Posting of Acceptance - In the recent case of Kennedy Mcrcantile Co. v. Western Union Telegraph Co., the court says, "It is well settled law in this state that,where an offer is submitted by letter, an acceptance is conclusive and binding when a letter is deposited in the post-office accepting the same. The delivery to the one making the offer is not the test; for when the offer is submitted in that way it is equivalent to an invitation to accept by the same means, and when the acceptance is delivered to the agency …

The State Governor Ii, John A. Fairlie

Michigan Law Review

The power of the governor over the executive administration includes on the one hand his general control over the whole administration, and on the other hand the special authority conferred in certain particular branches of administration. His general authority is based on his control over the personnel of the administration, by means of his powers of appointment and removal; and by his power to see that the laws are executed, and more specific authority to direct and control the actions of subordinate officials. His special administrative powers include those in relation to military affairs and the external affairs of the …

The State Governor I, John A. Fairlie

Michigan Law Review

In all the States of the American Union there is an official known as the governor, who is at the head of the executive department of the State government. Most of the State constitutions provide that "the supreme executive power" shall be vested in the governor; and in some States, the phrase "chief executive power" is used; while others have the simpler form, "the executive power," as found in the national constitution. The qualifying adjective, "supreme" or "chief," found in most of the State constitutions serves to indicate at the outset a difference in the position of the governor from …

Removal Of Public Officers From Office For Cause, Ii, Alonzo H. Tuttle

Michigan Law Review

We have seen by the great weight of authority that removal for cause requires notice, charges and a chance to defend. It remains for us to discuss the most difficult question of all. What is the nature of this power? Is it judicial or executive in character? The importance of this question is two-fold. 1. If executive in nature, the courts have no power to review it by the writ of certiorari. If judicial, they have. 2. If judicial, the question arises, is it constitutional to confer such a power on an executive officer? Upon the question whether the power …

United States Department Of Justice, John A. Fairlie

Michigan Law Review

The Department of Justice has been developed from the English office of Attorney-General, with important features added in the course of American experience. As early as the reign of Edward I, almost contemporaneous with the appearance of a special legal profession in England, we find Crown Attorneys (Attornati Regis) employed for guarding the royal privileges in the courts. By the time of Edward IV the official title of Attorney-General appears for the first time. A little later, as the distinction between barristers and solicitors became established, the Crown lawyers are distinguished as the King's Attorney and the King's Solicitor. These …