Comment by tptacek

1 year ago

No, the President already has that power. The norm of the previous institutions was, largely, to let the agencies do their thing. This administration is not going to do that.

This was a live question in Trump's last administration, but I don't think it is anymore after cases like Lucia?

You are dying on the hill of a pedantic point. A president also has the power to declare an emergency and deploy the military domestically. Doing so would still be a power grab. The term just doesn't have the precise narrow definition you seem to be arguing for. Its colloquial understanding encompasses the use of heretofore unused powers.

  • Yes, because deploying the military domestically and overriding an FTC ALJ's legal interpretation are clearly comparable.

    • They are comparable in that they are both an increasing exercise of power wrt what had been previously done.

      I concur with GP; you are arriving at the conclusion through your own logic but somehow not seeing the conclusion. See intermerda's point below.

      3 replies →

    • You really can't see how they are both powers that presidents (arguably) technically have but which they do not execute? And that a president actually exercising such a power is thus a power grab?

      Nothing in my comment is comparing them or suggesting they are comparable.

Great analysis. By your logic you don’t think that the Enabling Act of 1933 was a power grab, correct?