The President is only restricted by Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution so the decision is made solely by the President. The only way to change this power is to add an amendment to the Constitution and this is not a task that is easily accomplished. This power that is granted to the President has created a lot of controversy. However, the pardoning of a turkey is one pardon that has become an annual tradition and is done every Thanksgiving. While a presidential pardon will restore various rights lost as a result of the pardoned offense and should lessen to some extent the disgrace arising from a conviction, it will not erase or expunge the record of a conviction.
The constitution gives the Supreme Court the power to check, if necessary, the actions of the President and congress. It can tell a President that his actions are not allowed by the Constitution. It can tell Congress that a law it passed violated the U.S. Constitution and is, therefore, no longer a law. It can also tell the government of a state that one of its laws breaks a rule in the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the final judge in all cases involving laws of Congress, and the highest law of all — the Constitution (Scholastic,
The presidency comes with vast arrays of roles and responsibilities: approving/vetoing every bill passed, making sure laws made by congress are carried out, and simply presiding over meetings of the association. But the presidents many responsibilities are constrained due to the Separation of powers, the Constitution, and Federalism. Without these constraints, the President would have all the power he wanted, essentially having a monarchy not a democracy. For instance, separation of powers creates three separate branches of government, each with their own special powers. The Constitution creates reliability, making the president co-operate with the other branches of government.
During the time the constitution was being written, the Founding Father used it as a way to protect our government so no foreign prince could buy his way into the presidency. But now the current stability of the American government and the intense media scrutiny of presidential candidates virtually eliminate that factor. Over 200 years have passed since the original drafting of the natural born citizen clause. During which technological innovations have made it possible for people to become more open about foreign policy or the vast diversity there is in the United
In Boumediene versus Bush case, the court voted that the detainees have the right to habeas corpus, because Cuba’s base is technically American territory. Chief Justice Roberts is against the majority vote. His thoughts are that the court is “overreaching” and fears that the decision made by non-political and non-accountable judges might strain the control of the nations on foreign policies. (Greenhouse, L., 2008) The role of the President as commander in chief is to put in force “laws passed by the Congress”. (Levin-Waldman, O.M., 2012, p.48) He also can do whatever he feels is needed to “protect and defend the Constitution”.
With the onset of the Second World War, the US stepped out as a world super power and the executive gained exclusive jurisdiction over foreign policy which in the 21st century now acts as a big role which the executive must be active in. Due to the fact the constitution doesn’t refer to foreign policy it has led to the president becoming very powerful in this role as the constitution bodes no constraint on it, meaning he can do ‘what he pleases’ as there is no check on the presidents over sight process. This exposes another flaw in the constitution written and devised in the 18th century, as once again it disregards some major governmental policies which have only recently come about. In addition, when the US constitution was written there were only 3 sectors in office ‘war, office and treasury’ this has now changed dramatically and the executive now has many sections – once again the constitution has not taken these into account and therefore doesn’t work on a ‘government’
The US constitution is commonly described as being very rigid. This stems from the fact that it is codified – laid down in one singular sovereign document, which sets out both the powers and limitations of each distinct branch of government, for instance the fact that each year the President has the power to make the ‘State of the Union’ address, where he outlines what he wants Congress to debate and pass laws on. These enumerated powers have stayed the same ever since the Constitution was drawn up. Furthermore, the US has a notoriously difficult amendment process. First a bill must be passed in both houses of Congress with a super-majority of two-thirds.
As a member of the US House of Representatives, Madison reviewed the Constitution making changes were he felt was necessary. Many Representatives argued that Congress did not have the authority to make changes to the wording of the Constitution. This made the changes that Madison made to the Constitution, amendments following Article VII. The House approved seventeen amendments, those seventeen amendments were sent to the Senate where they approved twelve. The twelve amendments were sent to the states for approval.
Lastly appointment judges is that the president choses judges from his following appointment lists. One power the president can control is veto laws. Veto laws is something the president has to do to delay a bill from becoming the law. This is a really important power because the president has to think wisely if he wants to pass a law. It doesn’t just go straight to the president there are stages
Before the wars powers resolution the President even had more power because he didn’t have to discuss anything with congress. When you have this type of power it could go to your head and you might make some bad decisions. And one bad decision could cost our country. As Chief Diplomat, the President has the hard job of dealing with foreign nations. He needs to always be aware of what is going on in the other worlds without