Congressional and Supreme Court Restraints on Treaty Termination Carried Out at the President’s “Lowest Ebb” of Authority

Shervin Taheran illustrates the alarming trend of US presidents who indicate they can unilaterally withdraw from treaties without congressional approval. She argues the Executive Branch is not the “sole organ” to decide whether the United States can terminate a treaty. After examining international law pertaining to treaties, Taheran discusses how constitutional principles, textual evidence, historical… Continue reading Congressional and Supreme Court Restraints on Treaty Termination Carried Out at the President’s “Lowest Ebb” of Authority

Roosevelt’s “Limited” National Emergency: Crisis Powers in the Emergency Proclamation and Economic Studies of 1939

Shortly after Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation of a “limited” national emergency. This proclamation cited no statutory or inherent authority. Alden Fletcher looks to the historical record to suggest Roosevelt’s proclamation was relying on ambiguous statutes that provided for executive power to declare emergencies or take emergency… Continue reading Roosevelt’s “Limited” National Emergency: Crisis Powers in the Emergency Proclamation and Economic Studies of 1939

Reviving Liberal Constitutionalism With Originalism in Emergency Powers Doctrine

Legal scholars have theorized three models of Article II’s Executive Power clause, otherwise known as the Executive Vesting clause: first the cross-reference theory, which points to specific powers under Article II, such as the appointment power; second, the Royal Residuum theory, which interprets Article II as granting wide-ranging powers possessed by the eighteenth-century British Crown;… Continue reading Reviving Liberal Constitutionalism With Originalism in Emergency Powers Doctrine