David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey - Presidents Have A Right To Czars

[Modbert]

washingtonpost.com

The White House czars are presidential assistants charged with responsibility for given policy areas. As such, they are among the president's closest advisers. In many respects, they are equivalent to the personal staff of a member of Congress. To subject the qualifications of such assistants to congressional scrutiny -- the regular confirmation process -- would trench upon the president's inherent right, as the head of an independent and equal branch of the federal government, to seek advice and counsel where he sees fit.

In 2006, Claude Allen, a domestic policy adviser to President George W. Bush, resigned after being accused of shoplifting.

This raises a second point in the Obama administration's favor: Some of the positions many are now criticizing have existed for years. As The Post reported this week: "By one count, Bush had 36 czar positions filled by 46 people during his eight years as president." Historically, presidents have turned to special advisers.

The Constitution's "appointments clause" requires that very senior federal officials be appointed with the Senate's consent, though lesser appointments can be made by the president, agency heads or the courts, as Congress provides. Well-established Supreme Court precedent holds that an "officer" subject to these requirements is one who exercises "significant authority pursuant to the laws of the United States."

Thus, White House "Energy and Environment Czar" Carol Browner can analyze, develop, advise, hold meetings and pound the table all she likes on energy and environment issues, but she can determine nothing. Her signature on any order, decision or regulation establishing or altering Americans' legal obligations would be meaningless, unenforceable by a court.

And who are these two people?

The writers are partners in the D.C. office of Baker Hostetler LLP and served in the Justice Department under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Case Closed

 

[Modbert]

Some other information about the two authors:

David B. Rivkin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Baker Hostetler | Find Lawyers | Lee A. Casey

And before you think they are just Conservatives in Obama's back pocket:

David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey: Mandatory Insurance Is Unconstitutional - WSJ.com

 

[Seanibus]

Case Closed

The case was closed when the Constitution was written. Except for specifying that there would be a secretary of state, treasury secretary, and attorney general, the constitution has little to say about how the president should constitute his administration. The notion of a cabinet developed entirely by custom. I think it is reasonable that the heads of cabinet departments be subject to Senate confirmation, since they are clearly appointees in the sense that the Founders intended it, but I can't see why anybody is all worked up if a president wants to have high-level personal advisors in the White House who formulate policy, provided they are not the ones physically running the departments. If the White House advisors are to be subject to Senate confirmation, then virtually any White House employee would need to be subject to Senate review as well, and I think that is both cumbersome and far beyond what the drafters of the Constitution had in mind.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Get over yourselves, guys. Czars have gone back to Woodrow Wilson's time. They are executive appointments carrying out a variety of assignments. They serve at the discretion and whim of the president. Both FDR and Eisenhower used private agents in carrying out such duies. Don't think that they are doing anything unusual or unAmerican. But you all are acting in a strange, whacky way. So stop it.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Wikipedia is fine and fun for a read but not for anything critically objective. I mean according to the whackos BHO is still a secret half-Muslim alien. What a bunch of far rightoid whackos.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Obama hiring Communists and Eugenicists really opened our eyes on this. Eliminate all Czars!

What prevents Obama from hiring every registered Democrat as a Czar?

 

[xsited1]

I believe this guy has it right:

Byrd: Czars are power grab by exec - John Bresnahan - POLITICO.com

West Virginia Sen. Robert C. Byrd, the longest-serving Democratic senator, on Wednesday criticized President Barack Obama’s appointment of White House “czars” to oversee federal policy, saying these executive positions amount to a power grab by the executive branch.

Byrd complained in a letter to the president that his decision to create White House offices on health care reform, urban affairs policy, and energy and climate change “can threaten the constitutional system of checks and balances. At the worst, White House staff have taken direction and control of programmatic areas that are the statutory responsibility of Senate-confirmed officials.”

While it’s rare for him to criticize a president in his own party, Byrd is a stern constitutional scholar who has always stood up for the legislative branch’s role in checking the power of the White House. He repeatedly clashed with the Bush administration over executive power, and it appears he won’t spare the Obama administration either.

Byrd also urged the president to limit claims of executive privilege and ensure that White House czars don’t have authority over Cabinet officers confirmed by the Senate.

“As presidential assistants and advisers, these White House staffers are not accountable for their actions to the Congress, to Cabinet officials and to virtually anyone but the president,” Byrd wrote. “They rarely testify before congressional committees and often shield the information and decision-making process behind the assertion of executive privilege. In too many instances, White House staff have been allowed to inhibit openness and transparency and reduce accountability.”

The West Virginia Democrat asked Obama to agree “that assertions of executive privilege will be made only by the president, or with the president’s specific approval,” and “that senior White House personnel will be limited from exercising authority over any person, any program and any funding within the statutory responsibility of a Senate-confirmed department or agency head.”

 

[JakeStarkey]

The loony extremist whacko right keeps up the stupidity.

 

[xsited1]

The loony extremist whacko right keeps up the stupidity.

I couldn't help but notice that your post came after mine where I quoted Robert C. Byrd, the longest-serving Democratic senator (who is on the LEFT, just in case you didn't know), who believes Czars are unconstitutional.

 

[Sinatra]

The loony extremist whacko right keeps up the stupidity.

I couldn't help but notice that your post came after mine where I quoted Robert C. Byrd, the longest-serving Democratic senator (who is on the LEFT, just in case you didn't know), who believes Czars are unconstitutional.

Damn - you kicked some ass right there!

 

[Modbert]

To be honest, I would believe the right a little more when they quote people like Robert Byrd if when finished didn't go back to calling him a kook and a racist.

 

[AllieBaba]

We have to use your own sources against you, since you won't acknowledge any other.

 

[Modbert]

We have to use your own sources against you, since you won't acknowledge any other.

But Byrd isn't my "source". I'm neither a Democrat or a big believer in Czars. However, if they have no real power and can truly do nothing but advise then I see no point in making a huge point about it.

Are you just a wee bit upset that I'm pointing out the hypocrisy of some on the right?

Take note, I acknowledge other sources but I call bullshit when I see it.

 

[Xenophon]

Case Closed

No.

Two guys writing an opinion piece does not 'close' any cases.