Term
Bush v. Gore (2000)
Question: Did the Florida Supreme Court violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment when it ordered a recount to take place without setting a single uniform standard for determining vote intent? |
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Definition
Yes. 5-4 vote.
• The right to vote is protected, as well as is the manner in which the exercise is carried out, by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment. A state may not, by later arbitrary treatment, value one person’s vote over another. |
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Term
In Re Neagle (1890)
Question: Does the President, without congressional action, have the authority to issue an executive order through the attorney general, to authorize the protection of Supreme Court Justice? |
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Definition
Yes. 6-2 vote.
• When a judge is discharging his duties and is threatened, the power of the President to protect the judge’s life is undeniable. |
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Term
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Definition
• Presidents have the power to enforce the laws of the nation, with or without
congressional approval.
• In re Debs (1894): Presidents can do what they need to do to protect the general welfare. |
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Term
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Definition
• President is much more constrained here than in issues of foreign policy!
• Presidential Vetoes and the Presentment Clause (Article I Section 7)
• Presidents can sign, ignore, or veto bills (as well as pocket veto them) |
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Term
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Definition
• Presidents want the LIV so that they can rid bills of unneeded pork in bills (Bridge to nowhere in
Alaska)
• Congress gave the president the LIV in 1996: why would it do so?
• Initially no standing in Raines v. Bird (1997)
• Clinton v. City of New York (1998) |
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Term
Clinton v. City of New York (1998)
Question: Does the line item veto violate Article I Section 7 Clause 2 (the presentment clause) of the constitution? |
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Definition
• Yes. 6-3 vote.
• The intent of the framers makes it clear that there is only one procedure for enacting
laws. |
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Term
Morrison v. Olson (1988)
Question: May a group of judges appoint a special prosecutor under the Ethics and Government Act of 1978? |
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Definition
• Yes. 7-1 vote.
• The special prosecutor is an inferior office in the federal government. |
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Term
Myers v. U.S. (1926)
Question: Does the president have the sole power to remove a person he has appointed even though they were appointed with the
advice and consent of the Senate? |
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Definition
• Yes. 6-3 vote.
• Cabinet officials must be the alter egos where the president has to exercise his authority. |
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Term
Humphrey’s Executive v. U.S. (1935)
Question: Did the FTC statute restrict the president’s removal power to the grounds cited in the law? |
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Definition
• Yes. 9-0 vote.
• The legislative intent demonstrates that Congress did not want the FTC to be
subject to any governmental official. That is, the FTC must be free of political domination, including from the president. |
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Term
U.S. v. Nixon (1974)
Question: Does the President’s right to absolute immunity give him the right to not turn over tapes that have been subpoenaed by a court of law? |
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Definition
• No. 8-0 vote.
• We reaffirm to Marbury which states that it is the province and duty of the Court to say what the law is. absent a claim of national security (or similar issue) neither the separation of powers, nor the privilege (without more) can sustain unqualified immunity. |
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Term
Executive Privilege: Lawsuits
To what extent are presidents immune to lawsuits while in office? |
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Definition
• Mississippi v. Johnson (1867)
• Georgia v. Stanton (1868) -- Injunction to stop reconstruction acts. |
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Term
Mississippi v. Johnson (1867)
• Question: May the president be restrained by injunction from carrying out laws that a state thinks are unconstitutional? |
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Definition
• No. 9-0 vote.
• The judiciary is forbidden from interfering with the exercise of executive discretion. |
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Term
Nixon v. Fitzgerald (1982)
• Question: Is the President shielded by
absolute immunity from civil damages
liability? |
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Definition
• Yes. 5-4 vote.
• The act here is within the president’s official responsibility and he cannot be questioned for carrying out this duty. Doing so would simply be too intrusive |
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Term
Clinton v. Jones (1997)
Question: Is a sitting president immune from private law suits while in office? |
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Definition
• No. 9-0 vote.
• The principal rationale for immunity is to ensure that officials are not sued for carrying out their official duties. This reasoning provides no support for immunity for unofficial conduct. |
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Term
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Definition
• The president “shall have the power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the U.S. except in cases of Impeachment.”
• Pardon erases all penalties
• Cannot impose a pardon! |
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Term
Ex Parte Grossman (1925)
Question: Does the President’s power to pardon extend to cases of criminal
contempt? |
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Definition
• Yes. 8-0 vote.
• The phrase offences against the United States does not exclude pardoning someone for criminal contempt. In fact, contempts have been pardoned for 85 years. |
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Term
Murphy v. Ford (US District Court
1975)
Question: Is a pardon constitutional without the existence of an indictment,
conviction, or even charge that a crime has been committed? |
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Definition
• Yes.
• The fact that Nixon was not indicted or convicted of an offense against the United States does not affect the validity of the pardon (Ex parte Garland). |
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Term
| Presidents and Foreign Policy |
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Definition
• Has special authority over foreign matters
• Commander in Chief
• Power to make Treaties
• Power to appoint ambassadors etc. and to receive ambassadors etc. |
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Term
U.S. v. Curtiss-Wright (1936)
Question: May Congress issue a resolution that concerns external affairs, that gives the president the power to control U.S. involvement in foreign affairs? |
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Definition
• Yes. 7-1 vote.
• The president alone has the power to speak or listen as a representative of the nation. The president does not get this power from an act of Congress but from the Constitution. |
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