Constitutional Powers of the President

A president in office abusing their titles and exceeding their constitutionally granted powers is not a new thing in many nations. This issue, in the modern world, is more or less the same like Imperial Presidency. In fact, Arthur M Schlesinger states that “A presidency becomes imperial when it relies on powers beyond those allowed by the Constitution.” He goes on to emphasize the reason why there are three branches of government in the U.S; to avoid the issue of abuse of office and for efficacy in administration. This paper therefore intends to outline some of the legally granted presidential powers in the U.S and how some of the modern presidents have abused them, directly or indirectly.

During these modern times, many a concerns has been raised over the probable abuse of executive orders. For example, during President Clinton’s tenure, the congress had to setup hearings to reconsider some of the executive powers granted to the president. This is because there were accusations that he had issued executive orders and land proclamations that were uncalled for. In the end, the court had to stall one of the Presidents executive orders. Due to the recent focus on these laws, there has been mass confusion on what is a right executive order and what is not, this provoked the initiation of reform proposals with regard to the relative use of presidential directives.

Constitutional Powers of the President.

The constitution of the United States was drafted in the year 1787, by a number of delegates who held a convention for that very purpose. However, it is argued that during this convention, the Powers of the President were discussed without a keen insight into the matter. Historians suggest that the quickness and partial reluctance of the delegates in looking into the matter was because they did not the then President, George Washington, to become cross or be offended by them. Jack Rakove termed the making of the Presidential Powers in the constitution as a very creative act, even though there was evident lack of consideration given by the delegates. He goes on to suggest that the constitution portrays the executive powers as to have been given to the president by the people rather than through the use of force or hereditary means. Also during the drafting of the constitution, it is assumed that it would be the executive branch of the government that would have more powers, and therefore presidential powers were ignored at the time. However, if we take a look at the presidency now, things have drastically changed, and if looked at keenly, it is the President who partially controls the Executive Branch of the government.

The Constitutional Powers of the President are outlined in Article II of the constitution and are divided into three Sections.

• Section 1

“It states that executive powers shall always and only