Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
Abstract
Put one good thing down for the Trump presidency: It inspired Peter Shane to take up the pen to detail the fallacies of unitary executive theory and other forms of aggressive presidentialism. In Democracy’s Chief Executive, Shane provides a clear and powerful account for why unitary executive theory — the claim that the president can control the entire federal bureaucracy, which Shane notes usually includes the propositions that the president can fire any subordinate executive branch officer at will and determine how any discretion delegated to the executive branch is exercised — fails. As he explains, such propositions are at odds with the Constitution’s text and structure, unsupported by original constitutional understandings as well as historical practice, and a bad idea from a normative and practical perspective.
Disciplines
Administrative Law | Constitutional Law | Law
Recommended Citation
Gillian E. Metzger,
Of Presidents, Democracy, and Congress,
Yale J. on Reg. Notice & Comment, November 4, 2022
(2022).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/4813