The Unitary Executive through Presidents Bush, Obama, & Trump

The Fifth Annual Executive Branch Review Conference will examine the changing and often convoluted relationship between the legislative and the executive branches in the United States government. The Conference began with an opening address by Senator Mike Lee and concluded with a closing address by OMB Director Mick Mulvaney.

This panel of the 2017 Executive Branch Review Conference was held at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. on May 17, 2017.

Please excuse the below average audio quality of this video.

Speakers:

Mr. Neil Eggleston, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis, Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School
Hon. Michael B. Mukasey, Of Counsel, Debevoise & Plimpton

Moderator:

Mr. Benjamin Wittes, Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution

As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.

[jgefaell]

Are you kidding me? The hum makes this an hour an a half of torture. There's no way to listen attentively and critically with this $#!+storm of noise. Shame. Important discussion, not treated as such.

[powerfulstrong]

Unitary executive has many defects，actually many Founding Fathers didn't prefer unitary executive it was Alexander Hamilton who strongly advocate unitary executive and he prevailed in 1787 Convention. Elvridge Gerry Edmund Randolph and George Mason were in favor executive council.Roger Sherman of Connecticut stated his preference for the executive to be appointed by and directly accountable to the legislature, regardless of whether it was to be unitary or plural. Before the vote to approve the unitary executive, Sherman also commented that advisory councils in the majority of the states and even in Great Britain served to make the executive acceptable to the people.

[tomc]

I ask this in all seriousness: how is the unitary executive theory any different than the doctrine of divine right of kings? How exactly is the president not above the law under unitary executive theory? If he is, why didn't the founders opt for a monarchy instead of a system with checks and balances?

[powerfulstrong]

There should be a constitutional amendment to curb abuse of power and the unitary executive power of President by providing more checks and balances by and with congress. Or to propose a constitutional amendment to vest the executive power in a executive council which headed by President, instead to vest the executive power in President alone.