1/ It’s going to be a wild ride for executive power during Trump 2.0. Here is a quick list of important issues where executive power is likely to be pushed hard, rethought, resisted, and/or, when possible, litigated. What am I missing?
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Presidential authority to order courts martial for those military officers he deems to be insufficiently toady or who reasonably conclude his orders are unlawful.
I think you're missing that the President has already been given virtually unchecked power, and that SCOTUS intends only to expand/strengthen it further. You think he'll lose on something like impoundment? Puh-leeze.
2/ The statutory law of civil service protection and, relatedly, the scope of POTUS’ removal power in the face of statutory restrictions—both for career & non-career officials. (Also: presidential authority to redesignate the head of the Fed.)
3/ The complex Federal Vacancies Reform Act, especially as it operates at outset of the administration. How aggressive and imaginative can Trump be in putting in loyalists atop departments on 1-20? How deeply can he deploy loyalists on 1-20?
4/ Related to last two points: Congress in 2022 made it harder for the president to remove inspectors general and to replace them with presidential loyalists. Are these restrictions consistent with Article II?
5/ Trump has refused to sign agreements under the Presidential Transition Act (including ethics pledges), isn’t participating in formal transition, and is cutting out FBI background checks, w/ uncertain legal/political implications for what happens on 1-20, and Sen. confirmations.
This is an alarming harbinger of the executive (and SCOTUS) push to maximize executive power and minimize both accountability and checks and balances. It is also a blunt warning that informal constraints will be negated.
6/ Relatedly: What is extent of the president’s control over the secrecy system? Any limits on POTUS’ authority to discard, rethink, or order the conferral of security clearances? Can scattered statutory restrictions on release of classified info constrain POTUS?
7/ The law of impoundment—can Trump cancel elements of agency budgets or otherwise refuse to spend appropriated $? This implicates the Impoundment Control Act, an old Rehnquist OLC opinion on Art. II power, and recent Supreme Court decisions expanding POTUS’ discretionary law enforcement power.
But @jacklgoldsmith.bsky.social does the PTA provide for any ramifications to a president-elect who refused to enter into MOU negotiations regarding, among other things, an ethics plan?
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