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Power and Constraint - Jack Goldsmith

By Jack Goldsmith

Release Date: 2012-03-05

Genre: Political Science

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The surprising truth behind Barack Obama's decision to continue many of his predecessor's counterterrorism policies.

Conventional wisdom holds that 9/11 sounded the death knell for presidential accountability. In fact, the opposite is true. The novel powers that our post-9/11 commanders in chief assumedā€”endless detentions, military commissions, state secrets, broad surveillance, and moreā€”are the culmination of a two-century expansion of presidential authority. But these new powers have been met with thousands of barely visible legal and political constraintsā€”enforced by congressional committees, government lawyers, courts, and the mediaā€”that have transformed our unprecedentedly powerful presidency into one that is also unprecedentedly accountable.

These constraints are the key to understanding why Obama continued the Bush counterterrorism program, and in this light, the events of the last decade should be seen as a victory, not a failure, of American constitutional government. We have actually preserved the framersā€™ original idea of a balanced constitution, despite the vast increase in presidential power made necessary by this age of permanent emergency.

Power and Constraint - Jack Goldsmith

By Jack Goldsmith

Release Date: 2012-03-05

Genre: Political Science

(0 ratings)
Read Download
The surprising truth behind Barack Obama's decision to continue many of his predecessor's counterterrorism policies.

Conventional wisdom holds that 9/11 sounded the death knell for presidential accountability. In fact, the opposite is true. The novel powers that our post-9/11 commanders in chief assumedā€”endless detentions, military commissions, state secrets, broad surveillance, and moreā€”are the culmination of a two-century expansion of presidential authority. But these new powers have been met with thousands of barely visible legal and political constraintsā€”enforced by congressional committees, government lawyers, courts, and the mediaā€”that have transformed our unprecedentedly powerful presidency into one that is also unprecedentedly accountable.

These constraints are the key to understanding why Obama continued the Bush counterterrorism program, and in this light, the events of the last decade should be seen as a victory, not a failure, of American constitutional government. We have actually preserved the framersā€™ original idea of a balanced constitution, despite the vast increase in presidential power made necessary by this age of permanent emergency.

More by Jack Goldsmith

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Power and Constraint

The Terror Presidency

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