Congressional Expectations of Presidential Self-Restraint DOI
Jack Greenberg, John A. Dearborn

Published: April 15, 2025

This Element explores how Congress has designed laws reliant on an assumption of presidential self-restraint, expectation that presidents would respect statutory goals by declining to use their formal powers in ways were legally permissible but contrary stated congressional intent. Examining several addressing political appointments since the 1970s – statutes involving FBI director, Office Personnel Management chairman Joint Chiefs Staff, director national intelligence, Federal Emergency Agency administrator, inspectors general, Senior Executive Service, vacancies, Social Security Administration commissioner, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau authors demonstrate lawmakers' reliance self-restraint design identify a variety institutional tools used signal those expectations. Furthermore, developmental dilemma: combined rise polarization, presidentialism, constitutional formalism threatens leave more dependent even as norm's reliability is increasingly questionable.

Language: Английский

Congressional Expectations of Presidential Self-Restraint DOI
Jack Greenberg, John A. Dearborn

Published: April 15, 2025

This Element explores how Congress has designed laws reliant on an assumption of presidential self-restraint, expectation that presidents would respect statutory goals by declining to use their formal powers in ways were legally permissible but contrary stated congressional intent. Examining several addressing political appointments since the 1970s – statutes involving FBI director, Office Personnel Management chairman Joint Chiefs Staff, director national intelligence, Federal Emergency Agency administrator, inspectors general, Senior Executive Service, vacancies, Social Security Administration commissioner, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau authors demonstrate lawmakers' reliance self-restraint design identify a variety institutional tools used signal those expectations. Furthermore, developmental dilemma: combined rise polarization, presidentialism, constitutional formalism threatens leave more dependent even as norm's reliability is increasingly questionable.

Language: Английский

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