Another case where the court had to put a check on Nixon was the United States v Nixon. In this case, Nixon refused turning over the Watergate special prosecutor his taped conversations. He tried using his implied authority to invoke “executive privilege” but the Supreme Court decided that the privilege did not protect the tape, and the release of the tape ended his regime.
President William Jefferson Clinton was thought by many, to put an end to imperial presidency, being the first post-cold war president and a member of a political party that had in the wake of Vietnam War endeavoured to restrain the exaggeration of foreign policy, i.e. not make any foreign policy appear bigger/ more dangerous as it originally is. Professor Schlesinger stated that “the fall of the soviet union completed the revolt against the abuse of presidential power. Because it was the creation of international crisis, the imperial presidency collapsed once that crisis came to an end.”
Most scholars speculate that President Clinton broke some rules of law (the treaty rule) thereby acting as an imperial president. It was said that the three wars; war on tobacco, Microsoft’s monopoly over the market and the war on firearms was waged by Clinton in order to win public relations points for himself and the Democratic Party. In addition to this, Clinton’s administration displayed its disrespect for the constitutional process and declared a one-sided power to wage war without congressional approval. An example was the 78-day air war conducted against Serbia in 1999 despite congress’s formal refusal to approve the action. Towards the end of Clintons second term, the imperial presidency was as free and as alarming as it has been at any time since the Vietnam War.
Now, with all this said the important question is to know how the current administration works, “Is President George w. Bush acting as an imperial president?” with the controversy on his first election and the horrific terrorist attack on September 11. Terrorism is a word that instils fear into hearts of many. Terrorism is another word for rebellion. During the tsarist regime in Russia, terrorism came in the form of anarchy and the secret police was put in the position of putting an end to it. Terrorism is a crime against humanity and as such should be treated as a criminal offence and should be dealt with by the police.
President W. Bush declaring war on terrorism without the approval of congress is unconstitutional and it is an abuse of power. The war in my opinion was infused with the spirit of seeking unilateral American dominance.
President Bush’s policies on foreign affairs are examples of his arrogance of power; telling President Yasser Arafat to step down or telling the Palestinians they cannot vote for Arafat, the war on terrorism, the invasion on Iraq and deposing Iraq’s Saddam Hussein are unconstitutional because congress did not approve of it. It is unprecedented in the history of any democratic nation, thus taking it back to the colonial era. And by these actions, he is acting as an imperial president.
There have, of course, been occasions when a sitting President has assumed war making powers with little regard for the views of Congress or the general public. US forces were already involved in Vietnam when Lyndon Johnson engineered the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964, and George Bush Senior agreed in a two-day Senate debate on US intervention in the Persian Gulf, but George W. Bush has surpassed his predecessors in the assumption of imperial powers--most obviously, perhaps, in his tendency to conflate America's war against terrorism with his own existential destiny. "I will not forget this wound to our country," he told the nation shortly after September 11. "I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people." In assuming this pivotal role, moreover, Bush has made it clear that he will allow no boundaries not even on his exercise of national power. The president made the arbitrary decision to designate as a foreign “enemy combatant” Some Americans are being held incommunicado in a military brig without due process of law and without charges... in suspect of being related to al-Qaeda and possessing a dirty bomb. These people are being denied their rights.
This situation should trouble all democratic Americans who believe in the preservation of constitutional limitations on the power of the executive. American freedom and democracy cannot coexist with an imperial presidency. All in the name of ‘national security’ 45 days after the September 11 attacks, with virtually no debate, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act. Many parts of this sweeping legislation take away checks on law enforcement and threaten the very rights and freedoms that American are struggling to protect. It is denounced as an assault on civil rights. For example; without a warrant and motive, the FBI now has the power to access most private medical records, library records, wiretap into telephone conversations, student records, and sent or received emails without the individual citizen’s consent. Also, the patriotic acts makes it difficult for people to state their views and opinions especially on terrorism because if an individual speaks against war on terrorism, he is said to be unpatriotic and could be seen as assisting terrorism. The patriotic act also has its good side as it helps to bring about a moderate level of security and helps monitor people involved in fraudulent activities as emails and telephone conversation can be wiretapped by law enforcement agencies.
. Imperial presidency has become an unchangeable fact of life in America. The effect of imperial presidency has caused more harm than good. America under imperial presidents has established it’s so called destiny to be world power. A passive president would ruin the supremacy of America as other nations might try evading it. Bush on the other hand has drawn other nation’s attention to America. It has put America in the spot light and has shown America’s military strength although this was done in the detriment of other people’s existence. The president’s major concern is foreign affairs and aggrandizing foreign policies in such a way that might lead to declaring a war. This gives him the privilege of displaying his role as commander-in-chief of the arm forces. In doing this, the president totally forgets about the emergencies of the American citizens; children living in poverty increase in crime rate, nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert etc. America’s allies are not at ease with Bush contemplating such drastic decisions with little or none of their consent if this continues, a war might be declared or an attack might be made on America and its allies would not involve themselves.
The issue of imperial presidency is some worth similar to George Orwell’s famous book; “the animal farm” where there was a search and desperate need for a perfect leader who is unbiased and would follow the lay-down rules of the founding fathers. But each time they get deceived into voting in the wrong person no leader can ever be perfect and when put in such great place of power seize to make best use if not exceed the boundaries of the power. This is why Congress has to place a check and balance on presidency, the leniency of congress is becoming a course for concern. When congress gave Lyndon B. Johnson a free hand to do whatever he believed was necessary in Southeast Asia, the result was the deadly Vietnam War that ripped America apart. Now congress is being extra indulgent with the bush administration. The people should show their resentment to the imperial presidency. Also election should be done justly so that the fluke that put Bush into administration doesn’t occur again. If congress and the judiciary can put a proper check like that of Nixon’s or Ronald Reagan’s regime, congress would acquire its rightful position in the balance of power and the democratic nation which the founding fathers intended for would be derived.
About 2,400 detainees being held by US military troops