1. Chapter 14

2. Section 1

3. What factors have contributed to the
growth of presidential power?
• The presidency is a unified office with a focused
purpose.
• Congress has granted more authority to the
executive branch.
• The President can act decisively in times of crisis,
increasing his or her influence.
• The support staff of the President has grown over
time.

4.  Article II of the Constitution
gives the President power to:
• Command the armed forces
• Make treaties
• Approve or veto acts of
Congress
• Send or receive diplomats
• “Take care that the Laws be
faithfully executed.”
 The presidency has been
called the “most powerful
office in the world.”

5. These executive powers are broadly
defined and open to interpretation.
• At the Constitutional Convention, some delegates
argued for a weaker chief executive appointed by
Congress.
• They were defeated by delegates supporting a
strong, independently elected executive.

6.  Compared to Congress, the executive branch
is a unified office with one leader, capable of
quicker decisions.
 As the role of the federal government has
grown and the country has endured wars and
other major crises, citizens have looked to the
presidency for decisive leadership.

7. Congress has delegated authority to the
executive branch to carry out the many
laws passed by the legislative branch.
• Certain Presidents have used the influence of
their office to increase the scope of presidential
power.

8. The size of the staff supporting the
President has grown, allowing involvement
in more areas of government.
• Presidents have a unique ability to use mass
media—such as radio, television, and the
Internet—to attract public attention to their policies
and goals.

9.  The debate continues
over how much power
the President should
have relative to
Congress.
• What is the source of
presidential power as
shown in this political
cartoon?

10. In this cartoon, who
is giving the
President increased
powers?

11.  In 1952, the Supreme Court ruled that President Harry
Truman could not use his powers as commander in
chief to take control of U.S. steel mills during the Korean
War. (Youngstown Sheet & Tube C. v. Sawyer)
 In 2006, the Court ruled that President George W. Bush
could not use military tribunals to prosecute “enemy
combatants” and held that part of his plan violated the
Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military
Justice. (Hamdan v. Rumsfeld)

12. Presidents like Theodore Roosevelt have
supported broad powers.
• Roosevelt supported the “stewardship theory,”
arguing that the President should try to do
whatever would help the public, using whatever
powers could be claimed.

13.  Presidents like William Taft
have favored limited
presidential powers.
• Taft felt that Presidents
could not simply assume
powers that they felt were
needed to serve the
people. All executive
power had to be based
clearly on the
Constitution.

14.  In recent years, some critics claim that the presidency
has grown too powerful.
 They refer to this increase of power as an imperial
presidency because presidents often take actions
without consulting Congress.
 Supporters of the imperial presidency argue that the
President often needs to act more swiftly than would be
possible if he or she had to wait for congressional
approval.

15. Section 2

16.  What are the executive powers and how were
they established?
• The President:
 Executes and interprets the law of the land
 Issues executive orders
 Appoints many public officials
 Removes appointed officials
 Can use executive privilege to withhold information from
Congress and the federal courts
• These powers come from the Constitution and from
acts of Congress.

17.  The President enforces and
carries out all federal laws.
This authority comes from
two sources:
• The oath of office, which
requires the President to
“faithfully execute the
Office of President” and
“protect and defend the
Constitution.”
• The constitutional
requirement that the
President “take Care that
the Laws be faithfully
executed.”

18.  Congress passes many laws that set out
broad policies, but do not include specific
details for enforcement.
 The President and other members of the
executive branch must decide how these
laws should be administered and enforced.
 To do so, they must often interpret the intent
of these laws.

19.  The President can issue executive orders—rules
and regulations that have the force of law. This is
called the ordinance power.
• The President must have this authority in order to use
some of the executive powers granted by the
Constitution.
• In addition, Congress has delegated the authority to
direct and regulate many legislative policies and
programs to the President and the executive branch.

20.  The Constitution grants the President
appointment power, the ability to appoint some
federal officials.
• This power is necessary to ensure that presidential
policies are carried out.
• The President appoints some 3,000 of the 2.7 million
federal workers.
• The majority of the rest are hired according to civil
service laws.

21.  Presidents appoint top-ranking officials such as:
• Cabinet members and their top aides
• Ambassadors and other diplomats
• The heads of independent agencies
• All federal judges, U.S. marshals, and attorneys
• All officers in the U.S. armed forces
 These appointments must be a approved by a
majority vote of the Senate.

22. The president can make recess
appointments to fill vacancies when the
Senate is not in session.
• These appointments expire at the end of the
congressional term they were made.
• They are controversial because they allow the
President to bypass the Senate confirmation
process.

23.  This graphic outlines the
process of nominating and
approving or rejecting a
presidential appointee.
• Under the custom of senatorial
courtesy, the Senate will only
approve federal appointees
supported by the Senators from
their state who belong to the
President’s party.

24.  Presidential appointees
are sometimes criticized
for lacking
independence and
simply parroting
presidential views.
• How might this
parroting actually
benefit the President?

25. The Constitution does not say how
appointed officers should be removed.
• Some politicians wanted Senate approval
for removals as well as appointments.
• Others argued that the President must have
the power to remove incompetent
appointees.

26.  The First Congress gave the President the
power to remove any appointed officer except
for federal judges.
 Congress tried unsuccessfully to take the
removal power away from President Andrew
Johnson in 1867.
 In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that the
removal power was a key part of the
President’s authority to execute the laws.

27.  In 1935, the Court ruled Congress can set the
conditions under which members of
independent regulatory agencies, such as the
Federal Trade Commission, may be removed
from office.
• This ruling applies only to a small number of appointed
offices.
• In general, the President can remove whomever they
appoint.

28.  At times, Presidents have refused to reveal
certain information to Congress or the federal
courts.
 Congress has never officially recognized the
right of executive privilege.
• The President’s advisers and staff must be able to
speak freely to give good advice. To do so, they must
believe that their words are confidential unless the
President chooses to reveal them publicly.
• What is the court’s stand on executive privilege?

29.  In the 1974 case United States v. Nixon, the Court ruled
unanimously that the President could claim executive
privilege in matters involving national security.
 However, the Court also ruled
that executive privilege cannot
be used to prevent evidence
from being heard in a criminal
proceeding, as that would deny
the 6th Amendment guarantee
of a fair trial.

30. Section 3

31.  What tools are available to the President to implement
foreign policy?
• Making treaties and executive agreements with foreign
countries
• Recognizing foreign nations
• Recalling American diplomats or expelling foreign
diplomats from U.S. soil
• Ordering the U.S. military to conduct operations on foreign
soil without a formal declaration of war

32. The Constitution does not formally give the
status of chief diplomat to the President.
But two presidential powers play a key
role:
• The President is the commander in chief of the
nation’s armed forces.
• The President, usually acting through the
secretary of state, negotiates treaties with
foreign nations.

33.  Treaties have the same legal status as an act of
Congress.
 Congress can repeal a treaty by passing a law that
nullifies its provisions.
 An existing law can be repealed by the terms of a
treaty.
 A treaty cannot conflict with any part of the
Constitution.
 If a treaty and a federal law conflict, the most
recently passed measure wins.

34.  A two-thirds majority of the Senate must approve all
treaties before they go into effect.
• This gives the Senate an important role in shaping
U.S. foreign policy.
• A Senate minority can kill a treaty. In 1920 the Senate
rejected the Treaty of Versailles.
• Presidents John Tyler and William McKinley each
overcame Senate rejections of treaties by getting joint
resolutions passed to annex Texas and
Hawaii, respectively.

35. Presidents can make executive
agreements without Senate approval.
These agreements cannot overrule state
or federal law.
Executive agreements do not become part
of American law. Only those agreements
made by the current President remain in
force.

36. The President
recognizes the legal
status of other nations
on behalf of the United
States.
Countries usually
recognize each other
by exchanging
diplomatic
representatives.

37.  Out of political necessity, the United States
recognizes some nations whose conduct it
does not agree with.
 Recognizing a new nation, such as Panama
or Israel, can help ensure its success.
 Expelling foreign diplomats or recalling
U.S. diplomats from a foreign country is a
strong expression of disapproval and
sometimes a step toward war.

38. Presidents delegate many command
decisions to military officers, but
Presidents make the most critical
decisions and have the authority to take
command in the field.

39. It is difficult for Congress to challenge
many presidential command decisions.
President Theodore Roosevelt once sent
the U.S. Navy halfway around the world
without consulting Congress. Legislators
had no choice but to approve funds to
bring the Navy back.

40.  Only Congress can declare war; however, many
U.S. presidents have sent armed forces into
combat abroad without a declaration of war:
• John Adams had the U.S. Navy fight French warships in
1798.
• Ronald Reagan ordered the invasion of Grenada in 1983 to
block a military coup.
• George H.W. Bush ordered the ouster of Panamanian
dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989.
• Bill Clinton sent troops to the Balkans in the 1990s.
• How might a President exercise the role of commander in
chief?

41.  Congress has not declared war since World
War II.
 However, Congress has passed eight joint
resolutions authorizing the President to use
military force abroad, such as:
• In 1955, Congress let President Dwight Eisenhower
position the U.S. Navy to block Chinese aggression toward
Taiwan.
• The Iraq Resolution of 2002 authorized the use of force
against Iraq.

42. At times Presidents
have sought
Congressional
approval for the use
of military force, while
other times they have
not.

43. The results of the undeclared Vietnam War
led Congress to pass the War Powers
Resolution of 1973.
There is still a debate over whether this
Resolution is constitutional or not.

44.  The War Powers Act states that the President
can commit military forces to combat only
• If Congress has declared war, OR
• If Congress has authorized military action, OR
• If an attack on the nation or its armed forces has
taken place. In this case, Congress must be
notified within 48 hours and can end the
commitment of troops at any time.

45. Section 4

46.  How can the President check the actions of the
legislative and judicial branches?
• By using the message power to influence Congress to
pass desired legislation
• By vetoing bills passed by Congress
• By issuing signing statements
• By pardoning citizens accused or convicted of crimes
• By reducing fines or the length of sentences
• By granting amnesty to groups of people

47.  As party chief, the President can greatly
influence Congress.
 The President sends messages to Congress to
suggests legislation.
 There are three major messages a year:
 The State of the Union, delivered to a joint session of
Congress.
 The President’s budget message
 The Annual Economic Report

48.  Every bill or measure requiring the consent of both
House and Senate must be submitted to the
President.
 In response, the President can:
• Sign the bill into law
• Veto the bill
• Allow the bill to become law by not acting upon it
within ten days
• Exercise a pocket veto at the end of a congressional
session by not acting on the bill before Congress
adjourns in under 10 days.

49.  Congress can override a veto with a two-thirds
majority, but this rarely happens.
• It is difficult to gather enough votes in each house for a
veto override.
• The mere threat of a veto can often defeat a bill or
cause changes to its provisions.
• Early Presidents rarely exercised the veto, but it is
common today.

51. Signing statements describe how a new
law should be enforced or point out
problems that the President sees with
the law.
Presidents may issue signing statements
when signing a bill into law.

52.  President George W. Bush
issued a record number of
signing statements.
• He claimed the power to refuse to
enforce certain provisions of a law
or to interpret it as he saw fit.
• Critics saw this as an attempt to
veto bills without exercising a
formal veto.

53. The President can either accept all of a bill
or reject all of it.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the line-
item veto power can only be given to the
President by a constitutional amendment.
• How is a line-item veto different from a regular
veto?

54.  The proposed line-item veto would allow the
President to cancel out some parts of a bill while
approving others.
• Supporters argue that this would cut down on
wasteful federal spending.
• Opponents argue that the line-item veto would
shift too much power from the legislative branch to
the executive branch.

55.  The President can grant pardons and reprieves
in federal cases.
• The President can pardon people before they have
even been tried or convicted, though this is rare.
 President Gerald Ford famously pardoned former
President Nixon in 1974 before Nixon had
been tried.
• A person must accept a pardon for it to go
into effect.
 The Supreme Court upheld this rule in 1915.

56. The President can commute, or reduce, a
fine or prison sentence.
The President can also issue a blanket
amnesty that pardons a group of people.
• In 1893, President Benjamin Harrison pardoned
all Mormons who had violated polygamy laws.
• In 1977, President Jimmy Carter gave amnesty to
all Vietnam War draft evaders.