Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2017
Publisher
Boston University School of Law
Language
en-US
Abstract
The American presidency is a much more powerful office in 2017 than was contemplated by the Constitution of 1788. In large measure, that is because Congress has unconstitutionally subdelegated many of its legislative powers to the President. The President thus effectively functions as the Congress to a significant degree, which not only perverts the constitutional structure but also significantly raises the stakes of presidential elections. There is no good reason to expect Congress or the courts to stem the tide of subdelegation. Presidents, however, have a number of tools available to resist, and even reverse, that tide. While there is every reason to doubt the general willingness of presidents to turn down grants of authority in the name of an abstract document, there might – just might – be some perhaps counterintuitive reasons to think that President Trump may be more willing than other presidents to take the lead in reining in executive power.
Recommended Citation
Gary S. Lawson,
Representative/Senator Trump?
,
in
No. 17-39
Boston University School of Law, Public Law Research Paper
(2017).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/594
Comments
Published as: "Representative/Senator Trump?" 21 Chapman Law Review 111 (2018).