Science Forums 2

[Buffy]

The threads on honesty and evil governmental powers got me thinking about a hot inside-the-beltway topic that ought to get wider airplay, known by its cognoscenti-term "Unitary Executive Theory".

Our current Supreme Court nominee in the US was quoted recently discussing this theory: "makes the president the head of the executive branch, but it does more than that, the president has not just some executive powers, but the executive power -- the whole thing." (this quote was taken from a Wall Street Journal article for those of you who want to jump to the conclusion that it was taken out of context!)

The basic justification for this is that the Constitution states that congress' powers are limited to what is explicitly defined in the Constitution, whereas there is no such limitation in the description of "executive power." This is the reasoning behind the Bush administrations recent actions that not only contravene explicit laws passed by the congress, but that the executive branch is given the power to circumvent and disobey such laws whenever it sees fit. There's a growing number of articles on this topic, just google the subject line with quotes around it.

So gang, is this a good way to run a country? Why or why not? Is it still okay if a Democrat is the president? Is this going to be yet another interesting experiment in the law of unintended consequences? Is this the wave of the future? Are there parallels here to other governments in recent history? Can you say Baathist?

Executively speaking,
Buffy