The Politics of Executive Privilege

The Politics of Executive Privilege PDF Author: Louis Fisher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
For over 200 years, Congress and the President have locked horns on an issue that will not, and cannot go away: legislative access to executive branch information. Presidents and their advisers often claim that the sought-for information is covered by the doctrine of executive privilege and other principles that protect confidentiality among presidential advisers. For its part, Congress will articulate persuasive reasons why legislative access is crucial. In terms of constitutional principles, these battles are largely a standoff, and court decisions in this area are interesting but hardly dispositive. What usually breaks the deadlock is a political decision: the determination of lawmakers to use the coercive tools available to them, and political calculations by the executive branch whether a continued standoff risks heavy and intolerable losses for the President. Many useful and thoughtful standards have been developed to provide guidance for executive-legislative disputes over access to information. Those standards, constructive as they are, are set aside at times to achieve what both branches may decide has higher importance; settling differences and moving on. Legal and constitutional principles, finely-honed as they might be, are often overridden by the politics of the moment and practical considerations. Efforts to discover enduring and enforceable norms in this area invariably fall short. Efforts to resolve interbranch disputes on purely legal grounds may have to give ground in the face of superior political muscle by a Congress determined to exercise the many coercive tools available to it. By the same token, a Congress that is internally divided or uncertain about its institutional powers, or unwilling to grind it out until the documents are delivered, will lose out in a quest for information. Moreover, both branches are at the mercy of political developments that can come around the corner without warning and tilt the advantage decisively to one side. It is tempting to see the executive-legislative clashes only as a confrontation between two branches, yielding a winner and a loser. It is more than that. Congressional access represents part of the framers' belief in representative government. When lawmakers are unable (or unwilling) to obtain executive branch information needed for congressional deliberations, the loss extends to the public, democracy, and constitutional government. The system of checks and balances and separation of powers are essential to protect individual rights and liberties. This book is also available in paper binding. "[T]ightly reasoned, nuanced, and thoroughly researched." -- Athan Theoharis, Marquette University Political Science Quarterly

The Politics of Executive Privilege

The Politics of Executive Privilege PDF Author: Louis Fisher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description
For over 200 years, Congress and the President have locked horns on an issue that will not, and cannot go away: legislative access to executive branch information. Presidents and their advisers often claim that the sought-for information is covered by the doctrine of executive privilege and other principles that protect confidentiality among presidential advisers. For its part, Congress will articulate persuasive reasons why legislative access is crucial. In terms of constitutional principles, these battles are largely a standoff, and court decisions in this area are interesting but hardly dispositive. What usually breaks the deadlock is a political decision: the determination of lawmakers to use the coercive tools available to them, and political calculations by the executive branch whether a continued standoff risks heavy and intolerable losses for the President. Many useful and thoughtful standards have been developed to provide guidance for executive-legislative disputes over access to information. Those standards, constructive as they are, are set aside at times to achieve what both branches may decide has higher importance; settling differences and moving on. Legal and constitutional principles, finely-honed as they might be, are often overridden by the politics of the moment and practical considerations. Efforts to discover enduring and enforceable norms in this area invariably fall short. Efforts to resolve interbranch disputes on purely legal grounds may have to give ground in the face of superior political muscle by a Congress determined to exercise the many coercive tools available to it. By the same token, a Congress that is internally divided or uncertain about its institutional powers, or unwilling to grind it out until the documents are delivered, will lose out in a quest for information. Moreover, both branches are at the mercy of political developments that can come around the corner without warning and tilt the advantage decisively to one side. It is tempting to see the executive-legislative clashes only as a confrontation between two branches, yielding a winner and a loser. It is more than that. Congressional access represents part of the framers' belief in representative government. When lawmakers are unable (or unwilling) to obtain executive branch information needed for congressional deliberations, the loss extends to the public, democracy, and constitutional government. The system of checks and balances and separation of powers are essential to protect individual rights and liberties. This book is also available in paper binding. "[T]ightly reasoned, nuanced, and thoroughly researched." -- Athan Theoharis, Marquette University Political Science Quarterly

Executive Privilege

Executive Privilege PDF Author: Mark J. Rozell
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801849008
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Drawing on White House and congressional documents as well as on personal interviews, Mark Rozell provides both a historical overview of executive privilege and an explanation of its importance in the political process. He argues for a return to a pre-Watergate understanding of the role of executive privilege.

The Pig Book

The Pig Book PDF Author: Citizens Against Government Waste
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 146685314X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
The federal government wastes your tax dollars worse than a drunken sailor on shore leave. The 1984 Grace Commission uncovered that the Department of Defense spent $640 for a toilet seat and $436 for a hammer. Twenty years later things weren't much better. In 2004, Congress spent a record-breaking $22.9 billion dollars of your money on 10,656 of their pork-barrel projects. The war on terror has a lot to do with the record $413 billion in deficit spending, but it's also the result of pork over the last 18 years the likes of: - $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa - $102 million to study screwworms which were long ago eradicated from American soil - $273,000 to combat goth culture in Missouri - $2.2 million to renovate the North Pole (Lucky for Santa!) - $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in California - $1 million for ornamental fish research Funny in some instances and jaw-droppingly stupid and wasteful in others, The Pig Book proves one thing about Capitol Hill: pork is king!

Executive Privilege

Executive Privilege PDF Author: Raoul Berger
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
Demonstrates that the presidential claim of authority to withhold information is without historical or constitutional foundation.

Executive Privilege: the Withholding of Information by the Executive

Executive Privilege: the Withholding of Information by the Executive PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Separation of Powers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Executive privilege (Government information)
Languages : en
Pages : 652

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Refusals by the Executive Branch to Provide Information to the Congress, 1964-1973

Refusals by the Executive Branch to Provide Information to the Congress, 1964-1973 PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Separation of Powers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Executive privilege (Government information)
Languages : en
Pages : 588

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Farmer's Tax Guide

Farmer's Tax Guide PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 108

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Constitutional Conflicts between Congress and the President

Constitutional Conflicts between Congress and the President PDF Author: Louis Fisher
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700619984
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Over three decades after its initial publication, Louis Fisher’s durable classic remains at the head of its class—a book that Congressional Quarterly called “as close to being indispensable as anything published in this field.” This newly revised sixth edition emphatically reinforces that sterling reputation. Fisher dissects the crucial constitutional disputes between the executive and legislative branches of government from the Constitutional Convention through President Clinton’s impeachment battles to the recent controversies over President Bush’s conduct as commander in chief. He ventures beyond traditional discussions of Supreme Court decisions to examine the day-to-day working relationships between the president and Congress. By analyzing a mixture of judicial pronouncements, executive acts, and legislative debates, Fisher pinpoints the critical areas of legislative-executive tension: appointment powers, investigatory powers, legislative and executive vetoes, the budgetary process, and war powers. He then examines these areas of tension within a concrete political and historical context. To scholars, this book offers a comprehensive examination of the institutions and issues of public law. For practitioners, general readers, and students of American government, it demonstrates how constitutional issues shape and define current events. The new edition covers for the first time: * Obama’s military decisions in Afghanistan and Iraq * Military operations against Libya in 2011 * Threatened attacks on Syria in 2013 * Efforts to close Guantánamo * Obama’s recess appointments during a pro forma session * “Fast and Furious” scandal: Holder’s contempt and Obama’s executive privilege * The growth of presidential “czars” * Executive branch secrecy and lack of accountability * State Secrets Privilege after 9/11 * Distinguishing between “implied” powers (constitutional) and “inherent” powers (not constitutional) * Pocket vetoes and the growth of “hybrid vetoes” * New developments in the President’s removal power

Withholding of Information from the Public and the Press

Withholding of Information from the Public and the Press PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Executive privilege (Government information)
Languages : en
Pages : 732

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Book Description


Executive Privilege : Presidential Power, Secrecy, and Accountability

Executive Privilege : Presidential Power, Secrecy, and Accountability PDF Author: Mark Rozell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description