Tag: Congress

Blog, Recommended ReadingLeave a comment

The Jan 6th Commission

George Thomas

The January 6th Commission is doing valuable work unpacking the details of the events that led up the attack on the Capitol. And it offers Congress a chance to reassert its authority. Congress was violently attacked while carrying out its constitutional responsibilities. If it does not demand answers, and use its constitutional power to get them, it will seem more feckless than ever. But will this matter politically in the short term? That seems highly unlikely.  As Quinta Jurecic argues in an essay in The Atlantic: “These details, if they bear out, are valuable—but they are details. The main facts of what happened … Continue reading The Jan 6th Commission

Blog, Recommended ReadingLeave a comment

Bob Dole’s Summons

Greg Weiner

Bob Dole’s posthumous op-ed in The Washington Post is a compelling call to restore shared values. From the essay: There has been a lot of talk about what it will take to heal our country. We have heard many of our leaders profess ‘bipartisanship.’ But we must remember that bipartisanship is the minimum we should expect from ourselves. America has never achieved greatness when Republicans and Democrats simply manage to work together or tolerate each other. We have overcome our biggest challenges only when we focused on our shared values and experiences. These common ties form much stronger bonds than … Continue reading Bob Dole’s Summons

Blog, Comment, Response to Blog PostLeave a comment

Judicial Deference, Legislative Motives, and Constitutional Ends

George Thomas

Greg offers a thoughtful response to the tension between judicial deference and constitutional principle. Let me begin with our agreement. I think Greg is altogether correct that protecting liberties is not the task of the judiciary alone. It is, as he puts it, the important work of “civic cultivation” that cannot simply be handed off to the judiciary. And insofar as representatives, citizens, and associations in civil society leave this to the judiciary alone, our liberties are likely to be less secure. As Judge Learned Hand, famous for situating himself in the tradition of judicial deference with James Bradley Thayer, put it … Continue reading Judicial Deference, Legislative Motives, and Constitutional Ends

BlogLeave a comment

Commemorating 9/14

Greg Weiner

President Biden has chosen an apt date, the 20th anniversary of 9/11, to complete the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. Congress should do its part by commemorating another anniversary—September 14, 2001, the date on which the AUMF for the inchoate “war on terror” was passed—by withdrawing that authority. The loose and hasty AUMF, which legislators like Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia have challenged—with signals of interest from the White House—has been used to justify military operations far removed from 9/11, al Qaeda, or Afghanistan. It has become a blanket authority for any operation nominally connected with terrorism. Repealing the AUMF—and … Continue reading Commemorating 9/14

Blog, Recommended ReadingLeave a comment

Conflict, Cooperation and the Separation of Powers

Greg Weiner

Three distinguished scholars of the presidency—John A. Dearborn, Desmond S. King and Stephen Skowronek—published an intriguing essay at The New York Times this morning about taming presidential power. Their case is that constitutional combat between Congress and the President favors executive power. Instead, they write, Congress should “assert its capacity to engage the president and the executive branch in ways that foster cooperation in issues of governance.” The authors note that Congressional attempts to play hardball on the separation of powers have tended to trigger backlashes: Presidents have responded by asserting executive power, and their control over the executive branch, more stridently, and the … Continue reading Conflict, Cooperation and the Separation of Powers

Blog, Comment, Response to Blog Post1 Comment

A Clarification on the Separation of Powers

George Thomas

I agreed with Ben’s essential point that within the separation of powers we can expect President Biden to have a somewhat different perspective on executive power than candidate Biden or, especially, Senator Biden. That point was about the institution shaping the occupant of the office. That’s embodied in Madison’s famous line about the interests of the office holder being connected to the “constitutional rights of the place.”  I am skeptical, however, that this understanding of the separation of powers captures our contemporary Congress. Ben takes heart that even while Republicans were reluctant to resist President Trump, the fact that they … Continue reading A Clarification on the Separation of Powers

Blog, Comment1 Comment

Congress and Deliberation

George Thomas

Jack Rakove has a good piece in the Washington Post pointing out that the filibuster in the Senate does not induce deliberation. Instead, it has essentially become a supermajoritarian requirement to lawmaking giving us a Senate “that prefers parliamentary obstruction to constructive deliberation — something the “greatest deliberative body in the world” now seems incapable of doing.” This is not what James Madison had in mind. On that, Peter Wehner has a great essay that echoes much of what has been said here about representatives actually reasoning and thinking—deliberating about the public good—rather than simply being the mouthpieces of their constituents. As Wehner writes, … Continue reading Congress and Deliberation

Other2 Comments

Congress, Impeachment, and Constitutional Redemption

The Constitutionalist

George Thomas is Wohlford Professor of American Political Institutions and Director of the Salvatori Center at Claremont McKenna College. On January 6th President Trump urged his supporters to violently storm Congress while it was in the process of formally counting the electoral votes that would recognize Joe Biden as the next president of the United States. Let’s be exquisitely clear about a few things. The President called for a violent attack on another branch of government. He did so in an effort, however feeble, to keep himself in power despite having lost the election. For the first time in American … Continue reading Congress, Impeachment, and Constitutional Redemption

Blog, OtherLeave a comment

What’s the Holdup?

Greg Weiner

After the President’s unrepentant comments this morning and the Republican Party’s rapid return to baseline–witness Lindsey “Count Me Out” Graham accompanying Trump on his border visit–the correct course seems clear: Impeach this afternoon and send the article or articles to the Senate this afternoon. The purpose of the 25th Amendment gambit in the interim remains unclear, and it suggests Congress would prefer to outsource its responsibilities to the vice president. Any delay in sending the article(s) to the Senate would suggest political maneuvering. More important, it would suggest subservience of House Democrats to President-Elect Biden’s wishes. An immediate impeachment and … Continue reading What’s the Holdup?