The Executive
Misconduct by executive officers
The need to expose and punish misfeasance in office The removal of public officers for misconduct is a healthy, natural, and normal process. It is an indication that checks and balances are working. The removal of a president or prime minister, the impeachment of a...
Fetters
In questions of powers, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution. —Thomas Jefferson. Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, authored in protest to the Alien and Sedition Acts. The conduct of the...
Status
Public officers in the United States are commingled with the crowd of citizens; they have neither palaces, nor guards, nor ceremonial costumes. This simple exterior of the persons in authority is connected, not only with the peculiarities of the American character,...
The role of the executive branch
The legislature passes legislation and the role of the executive branch is to administer it precisely and faithfully. Executive officers should generally be indistinguishable from ordinary bureaucrats except for their direct responsibility to the voting public....