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Untrodden Ground: How Presidents Interpret the Constitution

Untrodden Ground: How Presidents Interpret the Constitution

Author: Harold H. Bruff
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226211107

Published In: March 2015
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.S. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Paperback Edition ISBN: 9780226418261

HKD 1,064.00

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When Thomas Jefferson struck a deal for the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, he knew he was adding a new national power to those specified in the Constitution, but he also believed his actions were in the nation's best interest. His successors would follow his example, setting their own constitutional precedents.

Tracing the evolution and expansion of the president's formal power, Untrodden Ground reveals the president to be the nation's most important law interpreter and examines how our commanders-in-chief have shaped the law through their responses to important issues of their time. Reviewing the processes taken by all forty-three presidents to form new legal precedents and the constitutional conventions that have developed as a result, Harold H. Bruff shows that the president is both more and less powerful than many suppose.

He explores how presidents have been guided by both their predecessors' and their own interpretations of constitutional text, as well as how they implement policies in ways that statutes do not clearly authorize or forbid. But while executive power has expanded far beyond its original conception, Bruff argues that the modern presidency is appropriately limited by the national political process - their actions are legitimized by the assent of Congress and the American people or rejected through debilitating public outcry, judicial invalidation, reactive legislation, or impeachment.

Introduction: Only a Necessity

Part I. Durable Consequences

Chapter 1. Responsibility: The Constitution

Chapter 2. Summoned by My Country: Washington and Adam

Chapter 3. The Fugitive Occurrence: Jefferson and Madison

Part II. A New Nation

Chapter 4. Independent of Both: Jackson, Tyler, and Polk

Chapter 5. A Rough Time of It: Lincoln

Chapter 6. Unmindful of the High Duties: Andrew Johnson

Part III. Steward of the People

Chapter 7. Facing the Lions: McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Wilson

Chapter 8. What Must Be Done: Franklin Roosevelt