Is There Still an Imperial Presidency?

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ISI INEGBENIKI

IS THERE STILL AN IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY?

Writers of the constitution intended for congress to be the most powerful branch of government. They invested in the president: the powers of the monarch, but subjected him to the democratic principles of accountability which was ensured by a complex system of parliamentary and judicial checks and balances. For over a century the US got along fine with a relatively weak president whose major role was simply to carry out the laws and policies made by congress, however, there has been erosion in this system.

Presidential power only started to grow after the 19th century when the US set out on its path to empire.

A great transformation of the president’s power came with Franklin D. Roosevelt. When he came into office in 1933, he declared the great depression a national emergency and announced that he would treat the depression as a war. Although congress did not approve of this, he still presided over the nation. Roosevelt also stayed in office for more than four terms until his death in 1945. His forceful leadership and many years in office inspired a term, ‘the imperial presidency’ that would be applied to subsequent president with similar leadership style. Imperial means one that is superior in authority or acting like an emperor.

Roosevelt’s successors used the cold war to justify continuity of the imperial presidency. There was liberty in the amount of staff the president could have. The white house became over crowded with staff that held personal loyalty to the person holding the office of president this brought enough favour and support to the president in doing what he pleases. The president used their power to create a genuine American empire. As a basis for their authority, presidents typically cited their role as commander-in- chief- an undefined constitutional term, and they inherited powers other presidents had used before them. During Nixon’s time in office the Supreme Court and congress placed checks on him as he was exceeding his presidential boundaries.

In the name of protecting national security, Nixon wanted to be able to wiretap without approval of a judge. In this case, which was known as, united states v. United States court for the eastern district of Michigan presently known as the Keith case. The Supreme Court along with some of Nixon’s own appointees refused and Nixon lost.

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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 ...

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