Separation of Powers and Executive Authority: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
25 flashcard terms for Constitutional Law Topic 4, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 15-question quiz — free, no account needed.
The structural principle distributing legislative, executive, and judicial functions among three branches, with checks and balances designed to prevent any one branch from accumulating dominant power.
Formalist approach
A method of separation of powers analysis that asks whether the challenged action is legislative, executive, or judicial in nature and whether the branch exercising it is the one the Constitution assigns that function.
Functionalist approach
A method asking whether an arrangement unduly disrupts the core functions of a branch or aggrandizes another, tolerating overlap so long as the balance among the branches is preserved.
Youngstown Sheet and Tube v. Sawyer
Invalidated the wartime seizure of steel mills because no statute or constitutional clause authorized it and Congress had considered and declined to grant seizure authority.
Jackson tripartite framework
The influential concurrence sorting presidential power into three zones: acting with congressional authorization, acting in silence within a zone of twilight, and acting against the expressed will of Congress where power is at its lowest ebb.
Take Care Clause
The Article II duty that the President see that the laws are faithfully executed. It grounds enforcement discretion but is not itself a source of authority to suspend or rewrite statutes.
Unitary executive theory
The view that the Constitution places all executive authority in the President, so subordinate officers must remain subject to presidential direction and removal.
Appointments Clause
Requires principal officers to be nominated by the President with Senate advice and consent, while Congress may vest appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, courts of law, or department heads.
Principal and inferior officers
The distinction determining the required appointment route. Inferior status turns chiefly on whether the officer is directed and supervised by a superior other than the President.
Buckley v. Valeo
Held that members of an agency exercising executive enforcement authority must be appointed under the Appointments Clause, so congressional appointment of enforcement commissioners was invalid.
Morrison v. Olson
Upheld the independent counsel statute, treating the counsel as an inferior officer and rejecting a rigid rule that the President must be able to remove every executive official at will.
Myers v. United States
Held that the President may remove a purely executive postmaster without Senate participation, reasoning that the removal power is incident to the duty to execute the laws.
Humphrey's Executor v. United States
Permitted for-cause removal protection for commissioners of a multimember body performing quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial work, the foundation of the modern independent agency.
Seila Law v. CFPB
Held that a single director heading an agency with substantial executive power may not be insulated by for-cause removal, confining the independent agency exception to multimember bodies and inferior officers.
Legislative veto
A statutory device letting one or both houses, or a committee, nullify executive action without presentment. It was held unconstitutional because it altered legal rights outside the prescribed lawmaking path.
INS v. Chadha
Struck the one-house veto of a deportation suspension, holding that any exercise of legislative power must satisfy bicameralism and presentment.
Bicameralism and presentment
The Article I requirement that a bill pass both houses and be presented to the President. It is the sole path for enacting or repealing federal law.
Clinton v. City of New York
Invalidated the Line Item Veto Act because canceling selected spending items amounted to unilateral partial repeal of a duly enacted statute.
Nondelegation doctrine
The principle that Congress may delegate rulemaking authority only if it supplies an intelligible principle to guide the agency. In practice the Court has invalidated delegations on this ground only rarely.
Executive privilege
A qualified constitutional protection for confidential presidential communications, which yields to a demonstrated specific need for evidence in a criminal proceeding.
United States v. Nixon
Recognized executive privilege but held it qualified, ordering production of the tapes because the generalized interest in confidentiality could not defeat the needs of a pending criminal trial.
Presidential immunity from civil damages
Absolute immunity from private damages liability for acts within the outer perimeter of official responsibility, coupled with no immunity for purely private conduct predating or unrelated to office.
Clinton v. Jones
Held that a sitting President has no temporary immunity from a civil suit based on unofficial conduct, though trial courts should manage scheduling with respect for the office.
War powers tension
The unsettled allocation between the congressional power to declare war and fund the military and the presidential role as Commander in Chief, largely managed through statutes and political practice rather than judicial decision.
Impeachment
The constitutional process by which the House charges and the Senate tries civil officers for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors, with removal and disqualification as the only sanctions.