How much power is too much power?

[berg80]

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said Thursday that legal barriers making it harder for a president to remove administrative law judges are unconstitutional.

This follows a pattern from President Donald Trump’s administration of trying to remove executive branch officials who are supposed to be protected from partisan influence.

Administrative law judges are members of the executive branch who preside over hearings regarding administrative disputes between federal agencies and affected parties. They serve both the judge and jury in these proceedings — having the authority to conduct hearings, issue subpoenas, review findings and administer rulings.

Trump DOJ Claims Barriers to Removing Administrative Law Judges are Unconstitutional

Read more here.

www.democracydocket.com

Dotard continues to try to expand his authority beyond its legal scope.

 

[Contumacious]

The con trump is currently trying to pull off is using the existence of waste as a cudgel to amass unchecked power

Identify the FACTS upon which you relied to claim that he is exceeding the Authority conferred by Aticle II

 

[Scoutster]

View attachment 1081794

 

[Scoutster]

 

[Darkwind]

The trump cabinet is exemplary of AA for white people.

No comments on the merits of the unitary executive theory?

Racist.

 

[Mac-7]

Putting aside whether the spending is wasteful, Congress, not the prez, has control over spending for programs it created and appropriates funding for.

Congress did not approve those programs

It merely sent a block grant, aka blank check

To repeat, USAID is not a 4th branch of government

It works for the president

 

[Darkwind]

ANY power, in a leftist hand, is too much power.

 

[ThisIsMe]

Remember when Bill Barr was auditioning for the AG's job? He wrote a memo with his views on a topic he knew would please Don.

William Barr’s Unsolicited Memo to Trump About Obstruction of Justice​

Last month, news broke that in June 2018, President Trump’s current nominee for attorney general, William P. Barr, sent an unsolicited 20-page memo to the Justice Department critiquing special counsel Robert Mueller’s current investigation into Russian election interference.

Barr, who previously served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, penned the memo as “a former official deeply concerned with the institutions of the Presidency and the Department of Justice.” The memo questions the scope of Mueller’s investigation, and it argues that Mueller should not be permitted to demand answers from the president about possible obstruction of justice based on attempts by Trump to pressure former FBI Director James Comey to drop his investigation of Trump’s ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

William Barr’s Unsolicited Memo to Trump About Obstruction of Justice | ACLU

www.aclu.org

Bill was a fan of what is referred to as the unitary executive theory. A theory existing inside a circle of conservative thinkers no doubt trump never heard of it since it would have required that he read something beyond his social media posts. But he immediately knew he liked what it said. It posits the authority of the executive is extremely more expansive than has been found in our tradition to date. Music to the ears of a man seeking dictatorial powers.

What Is Unitary Executive Theory? How is Trump Using It to Push His Agenda?​

Since taking office, President Donald Trump has executed a whirlwind of dismissals across the federal government that violated federal statutes and decreed numerous executive orders, including one that blatantly defied the plain language of the Constitution.

Behind the seemingly scatter-shot opening acts of his second administration, legal analysts see a common goal: to test a once-fringe legal theory which asserts that the president has unlimited power to control the actions of the four million people who make up the executive branch.

If courts — specifically the Republican-appointed majority of the Supreme Court — uphold arguments based on the so-called “unitary executive theory,” it would give Trump and subsequent presidents unprecedented power to remove and replace any federal employee and impose their will on every decision in every agency.

What Is Unitary Executive Theory? How is Trump Using It to Push His Agenda?

Read more here.

www.democracydocket.com

The con trump is currently trying to pull off is using the existence of waste as a cudgel to amass unchecked power. To exert absolute authority to remake the government in his image. An image prioritizing loyalty to him over all else, bigotry pretending to be meritocracy, and a willingness to skirt the law in pursuit of said image.

He's finding out an awful lot of people, not all Dem's, are not comfortable with his goal. People who believe that much power is too much power. And they are beginning to raise a fuss. They don't object to streamlining the government where necessary. They object to the clumsy, reckless, incompetent way it's being done. As well as the assertion he has the right to continue no matter what the law says.

I've said it once, ill.say it a hundred more times, when you expand federal governments authority beyond the scope of the cotus, you get different people.interpreting that power in different ways. When the dead wield that power, I say "what comes around goes around". We'll, now it's "going around"

It's like the arguments for small government writs themselves....

 

[berg80]

Racist.

Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris, one of the top attorneys in the Justice Department, sent a letter to the Senate saying the DOJ “has concluded that the multiple layers of removal restrictions for administrative law judges…violate the U.S. Constitution” and “will no longer defend them in court.”

A federal law states these judges can be removed “only with good cause,” and that’s determined by the U.S. Merits Systems Protection Board (MSPB), which protects federal employees from unfair personnel practices.

MSPB members are appointed by a president and confirmed by the Senate to serve seven-year terms. A president can remove them but “only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”

Trump DOJ Claims Barriers to Removing Administrative Law Judges are Unconstitutional

Read more here.

www.democracydocket.com

 

[berg80]

To repeat, USAID is not a 4th branch of government

It works for the president

It works for the people of the US.

 

[Independent thinker]

Remember when Bill Barr was auditioning for the AG's job? He wrote a memo with his views on a topic he knew would please Don.

William Barr’s Unsolicited Memo to Trump About Obstruction of Justice​

Last month, news broke that in June 2018, President Trump’s current nominee for attorney general, William P. Barr, sent an unsolicited 20-page memo to the Justice Department critiquing special counsel Robert Mueller’s current investigation into Russian election interference.

Barr, who previously served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, penned the memo as “a former official deeply concerned with the institutions of the Presidency and the Department of Justice.” The memo questions the scope of Mueller’s investigation, and it argues that Mueller should not be permitted to demand answers from the president about possible obstruction of justice based on attempts by Trump to pressure former FBI Director James Comey to drop his investigation of Trump’s ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

William Barr’s Unsolicited Memo to Trump About Obstruction of Justice | ACLU

www.aclu.org

Bill was a fan of what is referred to as the unitary executive theory. A theory existing inside a circle of conservative thinkers no doubt trump never heard of it since it would have required that he read something beyond his social media posts. But he immediately knew he liked what it said. It posits the authority of the executive is extremely more expansive than has been found in our tradition to date. Music to the ears of a man seeking dictatorial powers.

What Is Unitary Executive Theory? How is Trump Using It to Push His Agenda?​

Since taking office, President Donald Trump has executed a whirlwind of dismissals across the federal government that violated federal statutes and decreed numerous executive orders, including one that blatantly defied the plain language of the Constitution.

Behind the seemingly scatter-shot opening acts of his second administration, legal analysts see a common goal: to test a once-fringe legal theory which asserts that the president has unlimited power to control the actions of the four million people who make up the executive branch.

If courts — specifically the Republican-appointed majority of the Supreme Court — uphold arguments based on the so-called “unitary executive theory,” it would give Trump and subsequent presidents unprecedented power to remove and replace any federal employee and impose their will on every decision in every agency.

What Is Unitary Executive Theory? How is Trump Using It to Push His Agenda?

Read more here.

www.democracydocket.com

The con trump is currently trying to pull off is using the existence of waste as a cudgel to amass unchecked power. To exert absolute authority to remake the government in his image. An image prioritizing loyalty to him over all else, bigotry pretending to be meritocracy, and a willingness to skirt the law in pursuit of said image.

He's finding out an awful lot of people, not all Dem's, are not comfortable with his goal. People who believe that much power is too much power. And they are beginning to raise a fuss. They don't object to streamlining the government where necessary. They object to the clumsy, reckless, incompetent way it's being done. As well as the assertion he has the right to continue no matter what the law says.

When democrats are gone then that will be just about right.

 

[Mac-7]

It works for the people of the US.

Yes, but also it works for the president

 

[berg80]

I've said it once, ill.say it a hundred more times, when you expand federal governments authority beyond the scope of the cotus, you get different people.interpreting that power in different ways. When the dead wield that power, I say "what comes around goes around". We'll, now it's "going around"

It's like the arguments for small government writs themselves....

Dissolving USAID would be a final assault on the foreign aid agency, where the administration already has issued a stop-work order for huge swaths of development assistance and other aid, abruptly put at least 56 of its senior career staffers on administrative leave, and laid off several hundred contractors working directly for the agency.

Such an action, however, likely would go far beyond the executive branch’s actual legal authority.

Can the President Dissolve USAID by Executive Order?

Congress established USAID in statute, and the president may not unilaterally override a statute by executive order.

www.justsecurity.org

 

[berg80]

Yes, but also it works for the president

Such an action, however, likely would go far beyond the executive branch’s actual legal authority. The bottom line: while some functions delegated from the president to the secretary of state, and in turn to the administrator of USAID, could likely be pulled back by executive action alone, wholesale dissolution of the agency or formal transfer of functions provided by Congress would require legislation. Let’s unpack why.

As is the case in many instances, there are legal ways to enact trump's policy goals. He just isn't following them.

 

[Mac-7]

Such an action, however, likely would go far beyond the executive branch’s actual legal authority. The bottom line: while some functions delegated from the president to the secretary of state, and in turn to the administrator of USAID, could likely be pulled back by executive action alone, wholesale dissolution of the agency or formal transfer of functions provided by Congress would require legislation. Let’s unpack why.

Someone decides to spend the money the way it is spent

Ultimately that should be trump rather than some GS-15 at USAID

 

[Scoutster]

 

[berg80]

View attachment 1081829View attachment 1081830

Are you twelve?

 

[berg80]

Earlier this month, Trump tried to remove MSPB chair Cathy Harris without providing a reason, so she filed a lawsuit and a court temporarily reinstated her while litigation continues. She would be one of the people who would determine whether Trump has cause to fire an administrative law judge.

Hampton Dellinger, the head of the Office of the Special Counsel, also sued the Trump administration for firing him without cause because like MSPB members, the Special Counsel can only be terminated “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” A federal district court blocked Trump’s actions, and his administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in.

Legal scholars argue these actions are part of Trump’s embrace of the Unitary Executive Theory, which asserts that the president has unlimited power to control the actions of the millions of members of the executive branch, possessing the ability to remove and replace any federal employee and control decision-making in agencies.

 

[Scoutster]

Are you twelve?

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Behind the seemingly scatter-shot opening acts of his second administration, legal analysts see a common goal: to test a once-fringe legal theory which asserts that the president has unlimited power to control the actions of the four million people who make up the executive branch.

And it isn’t just Trump – Republicans have long advocated for unitary executive dogma, that the president is above the law and is the law; that a president can be checked by neither Congress nor the courts.

Unitary executive dogma is consistent with the authoritarian right’s contempt for the rule of law and Constitution, and establishing the tyranny of Republican minority rule.