PBU - Powers of the President Lesson

Powers of the President

The formal powers of the president are outlined in Article II of the Constitution and explained in the presentation below:

Legislative Power

Only a member of Congress can introduce a bill into Congress, but the President can veto a bill. One type of veto is the Pocket Veto. If 10 days go by without the President taking action and Congress is still in session, the bill can become law without the President's signature. If 10 days go by without presidential action and Congress is not in session, the bill is automatically dead.

Judicial Power

The President has some power over how the federal courts punish criminals. A pardon is an action the Present can use to remove a crime from a convicted criminal's record. This action is irreversible. The president also has the power to reduce the sentence of a federal prisoner through an action called commute. Reprieve is power the president has to delay the penalty for a crime.

Spotlight on Executive Privilege: In the United States government, executive privilege is the power claimed by the President of the United States and other members of the executive branch to resist certain subpoenas and other interventions by the legislative and judicial branches of the government. The concept of executive privilege is not mentioned explicitly in the United States Consitution, but the Supreme Court of the United States rules it to be an element of the separation of powers doctrine. The Supreme Court confirmed the legitimacy of this doctrine in the United States v. Nixon, but only to the extent of confirming that there is a qualified privilege. The Clinton administration invoked executive privilege on fourteen occasions. In 1998, President Bill Clinton became the first President since Nixon to assert executive privilege and lose in court. On June 20, 2012, President Barack Obama asserted executive privilege, his first, to withhold certain Department of Justice documents related to the ongoing Operation Fast and Furious controversy.

 

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