Introduction to American
Legal System
The Presidency of the
United States of America
President of the USA
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The most powerful office in the world
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Although the Constitution established the
Congress as the first branch of the
government, the presidency has come to
the center point of American system over
the course of 200 years
US Constitution
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Article II of the US Constitution:
Clause 1:
 „The executive Power shall be vested in a
President of the United States of America”
 The president leads the executive branch of
the federal government and is one of only two
nationally elected federal officers (the other
being the vice president of the United States)
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Article I legislative role
The legislative power of the presidential veto.
The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to
be presented to the president before it can become law.
Once the legislation has been presented,
the president has three options:
1.
2.
3.
Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.
Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any
objections; the bill does not become law, unless each House of
Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.
Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes
the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible
outcomes emerge:
1.
2.
If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law.
If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the
bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto.
Article II
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Among other powers and responsibilities,
Article II of the U.S. Constitution:
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charges the president to "faithfully execute" federal
law,
makes the president commander-in-chief of the
United States armed forces,
allows the president to nominate executive and
judicial officers with the advice and consent of the
Senate,
allows the president to grant pardons and reprieves.
War and foreign affairs powers
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Perhaps the most important of all presidential powers is
command of the United States armed forces as
commander-in-chief.
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While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested
in Congress, the president commands and directs the
military and is responsible for planning military strategy
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Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must
authorize any troop deployments more than 60 days in
length. Additionally, Congress provides a check to
presidential military power through its control over
military spending and regulation.
Foreign Policy
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The president also directs U.S. foreign policy.
Through the Department of State and the
Department of Defense, the president is
responsible for the protection of Americans
abroad and of foreign nationals in the United
States.
The president decides whether to recognize new
nations and new governments, and negotiates
treaties with other nations, which become
binding on the United States when approved by
two-thirds vote of the Senate.
Administrative powers
The president is the chief executive of the
United States, putting him at the head of
the executive branch of the government,
whose responsibility is to "take care that
the laws be faithfully executed."
 To carry out this duty, the president is
given control of the four million employees
of the federal executive branch.
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Administrative powers
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A numerous variety of executive branch
appointments are made by presidents.
Up to 6,000 appointments may be made by an
incoming president before he takes office and
8,000 more may be made while in office.
Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and
other federal officers, are all appointed by a
president with the "advice and consent" of a
majority of the Senate.
Appointments made while the Senate is in
recess are temporary and expire at the end of
the next session of the Senate.
Administrative powers
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The power of a president to fire executive
officials has long been a contentious political
issue.
Generally, a president may remove purely
executive officials at his discretion.
However, Congress can curtail and constrain a
president's authority to fire commissioners of
independent regulatory agencies and certain
inferior executive officers by statute.
Administrative powers
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The president possesses the ability to direct
much of the executive branch through executive
orders.
To the extent the orders are grounded in federal
statute or executive power granted in the U.S.
Constitution, these orders have the force of law.
Thus, executive orders are reviewable by federal
courts or can be rendered null through
legislative changes to statute.
Juridical powers
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The president also has the power to nominate federal
judges, including members of the United States courts of
appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States
These nominations do require Senate confirmation and
this can provide a major block for presidents who wish to
orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological
stance.
However, when nominating judges to U.S. district courts,
presidents often practice the long-standing tradition of
Senatorial courtesy.
Presidents may also grant pardons as is often done just
before the end of a presidential term.
Juridical powers
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Executive privilege gives a president the ability
to withhold information from Congress and
federal courts in matters of national security.
George Washington first claimed privilege when
Congress requested to see Chief Justice John
Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation
with Great Britain.
While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any
other law, Washington's action created the
precedent for the privilege.
Juridical powers
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When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a
reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to
Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme
Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683
(1974), that executive privilege did not apply in cases
where a president was attempting to avoid criminal
prosecution.
When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive
privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme
Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997), that
the privilege also could not be used in civil suits.
These cases established the legal precedent that
executive privilege is valid although the exact extent of
the privilege has yet to be clearly defined.
Legislative facilitator
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While the president cannot directly introduce legislation, he
can play an important role in shaping it, especially if a
president's political party has a majority in one or both
houses of the Congress.
While executive branch officials are prohibited from
simultaneously holding seats in the Congress, and vice
versa, those executive officials often draft legislation and
rely upon Senators and Representatives to introduce it for
them.
The president can further influence the legislative branch
through constitutionally-mandated, periodic reports to
Congress.
These reports may be either written or oral, but in modern
times are given as the State of the Union address, which
often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the
coming year.
Selection process: Eligibility
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Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the
Constitution sets the principal
qualifications one must meet to be eligible
to the office of president.
A president must:
1.
2.
3.
be a natural born citizen of the United States;
be at least 35 years old;
have been a permanent resident in the United
States for at least 14 years.
Selection process: Eligibility
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1.
A person who meets the above qualifications is
still disqualified from holding the office of
president under any of the following conditions:
Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no
eligible person can be elected president more
than twice.
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The Twenty-second Amendment also specifies that if
any eligible person who serves as president or acting
president for more than two years of a term for which
some other eligible person was elected president,
then the former can only be elected president once.
Selection process: Eligibility
2.
3.
Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, the Senate
has the option, upon conviction, of disqualifying
convicted individuals from holding other federal
offices, including the Presidency.
Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment,
the Constitution prohibits an otherwise eligible
person from becoming president if that person
swore an oath to support the Constitution, and
later rebelled against the United States.
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However, the Congress, by a two-thirds vote of each house,
can remove the disqualification.
Campaigns and nomination
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The modern presidential campaign begins before the
primary elections, which the two major political
parties use to clear the field of candidates in advance
of their national nominating conventions, where the
most successful candidate is made the party's
nominee for president.
Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses
a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is
rubber-stamped by the convention.
Elections
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Presidents are elected indirectly in the United
States.
A number of electors, collectively known as the
Electoral College, officially select the president.
On Election Day, voters in each of the states
and the District of Columbia cast ballots for
these electors.
These electors in turn will vote for that candidate
in the Electoral College
Elections
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1.
2.
The Electoral College system was
devised for two reasons:
The Framers of the Constitution had
feared direct democracy (believed that a
college of dispassionate citizens were
better suited than masses to select a
president)
They wanted to protect the interests of
smaller states and rural areas
Elections
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The Electoral College is composed of 538 members –
equivalent to 100 senators, 435 House members, and 3
representatives from D.C.
Each state’s number of electors equals their number of
representatives and senators:
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California has the most: 54
New York: 33
Texas: 32
Florida: 25
Pennsylvania: 23
Except for Maine and Nebraska, the Electoral College is a
winner-take-all system: whoever carries the state receives
all of the state’s Electoral College votes.
Elections: Call for Reform?
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In 2000, President George W. Bush lost the
popular vote by half million votes.
The „magic number” is 270 electoral votes
The 25 electoral votes in Florida gave him a total
of 271 to Al Gore’s 267
There was some discussion about eliminating
the Electoral College and replacing it with direct
voting
Were that to happen, chances are the
candidates would focus on large population
centers such as NYC, California, Florida and
Texas, and ignore the interests of rural and
sparsely populated areas.
Elections: Call for Reform?
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In 1977, President Jimmy Carter proposed a
constitutional amendment that would do just
that, but the amendment failed to win twothirds majority in the Senate.
Four times has a president been elected w/o
winning the popular vote:
1.
2.
3.
4.
John Adams: 1824
Rutherford B. Heyes: 1876
Benjamin Harrison: 1888
George W. Bush: 2000
Elections 2012: CANDIDATES
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Barack Obama
44th President of the United States
Full name: Barack Hussein Obama
Age/DOB: 51; Born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu,
Hawaii
Home: Chicago, Illinois
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President Obama, the nation's 44th president, is seeking a second term in
office. The Democrat's rise to power was historic, making him the first
African-American president. In 2008, he defeated Democratic Sen. Hillary
Clinton's powerful primary campaign and surged ahead of Republican Sen.
John McCain in the general election.
Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983 and later became a
community organizer in Chicago. He attended Harvard Law School in 1991
and became the first-African American president of the school's law review.
Afterward, he became a lecturer of constitutional law at the University of
Chicago Law School.
Obama ran for the Illinois state Senate in 1996 and served from 1997-2004.
It was in 2004 that Obama set his sights on Washington, running for and
winning Illinois' U.S. Senate seat. He would serve only four years of his sixyear term, resigning to run for president in 2007.
Author and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, he is married to Michelle
(Robinson) Obama. The couple has two daughters, Malia and Natasha
(Sasha).
Elections 2012: CANDIDATES
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Barack Obama
Campaign Finance:
Total Raised, year to date: $632,177,423.00
Total Spent: $540,812,931.00
Cash on Hand: $93,667,891.00
Debt: $5,472,241.00
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As of October 2012
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Elections 2012: CANDIDATES
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He Said What?
Now, he can focus on more important matters like, did
we fake the moon landing? What really happened in
Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?
-- Obama joking about Donald Trump at the White
House Correspondents Dinner on May 1, 2011
Elections 2012: CANDIDATES
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Where Obama Stands: Economy:
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Perhaps the issue that will make or break his re-election
campaign is the economy and his handling of what many call the
Great Recession.
Hammered by Republicans who say that he is steering the
country in the wrong direction and that his policies haven't
worked, Obama made a series of reforms to crack down on Wall
Street practices and instituted programs to help small-business
owners and consumers.
His stimulus plan, which temporarily helped boost the economy,
has failed to significantly drop the record-high unemployment rate
of 9.1%. Obama, who came into office facing the fiscal crisis, says
economic recovery will need years to fully kick in. That's why, his
campaign says, he needs to be re-elected.
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Elections 2012: CANDIDATES
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Where Obama Stands: Health care
the top of the list of Obama’s accomplishments.
Despite facing heavy opposition by congressional
Republicans, Democrats were able to pass the
Affordable Health Care Act in March 2010 – a
sweeping set of reforms aimed to help more
Americans get insured.
Perhaps Obama’s biggest victory and biggest future
challenge in the election came when the Supreme
Court ruled that the Affordable Care Act’s individual
mandate was constitutional, not as a penalty, but a tax.
Elections 2012: Vice Presidents
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Joe Biden, 47th Vice President of the United States
Full name: Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.,
Age/DOB: 69; Born November 20, 1942 in Scranton,
Pennsylvania
Home: Wilmington, Delaware
Elections 2012: CANDIDATES
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Mitt Romney
Former Governor of Massachusetts
About Romney
Full name: Willard M. "Mitt" Romney
Age/DOB: 65; Born March 12, 1947 in Detroit, MI
Home: Boston, Mass.
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Mitt Romney
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A former businessman and governor, Mitt Romney's 2012 White House bid is
his second attempt to win the Oval Office. During the 2008 election cycle,
Romney lost the Republican nomination to Arizona Sen. John McCain. But
after that loss, Romney maintained an active national political organization. In
June 2011, he formally launched his 2012 campaign.
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Romney, who is Mormon, graduated from Brigham Young University in 1971
and then earned dual degrees from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business
School. He helped found Bain Capital, an investment firm that bought and sold
companies after turning them around. Romney also helped organize and run
the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Romney is wealthy, with assets for
him and his wife, Ann, worth an estimated $190 million to $250 million,
according to 2011 documents released by his campaign. A separate financial
disclosure form filed with the Federal Election Commission around the same
time stated that Romney's assets could be worth as much as $264 million.
The Romneys, who married in 1969, have five sons and 16 grandchildren.
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Politics runs in Romney's family; his father, George, was governor of Michigan.
Elections 2012: CANDIDATES
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Mitt Romney
Campaign Finance:
Total Raised, year to date: $389,088,268.00
Total Spent: $336,399,297.00
Cash on Hand: $52,702,010.00
Debt: $3,000,000.00
Elections 2012: CANDIDATES
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I am also unemployed...I'm networking. I have my
sights on a particular job that I'm working for.
-- Mitt Romney, speaking to a group of unemployed
Floridians , 6/16/11
Elections 2012: CANDIDATES
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Where Romney Stands: The Economy:
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On the campaign trail, Romney frequently promotes
his mix of experience in the public and private sectors.
Romney has also expressed support for the "cut, cap
and balance" approach to reducing federal deficit
spending that has been championed by tea party
activists and some conservative lawmakers in
Congress.
Elections 2012: CANDIDATES
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Where Romney Stands: Health Care
Says if elected, he will work to repeal the Affordable Care law, which he
also calls “Obamacare.” But, as Massachusetts governor, Romney signed
a health care bill into law that penalized Massachusetts citizens for not
having health insurance –similar to the federal provision but applied at the
state level. At the time, Romney said the purpose of “Romneycare” was to
provide, “Every citizen with affordable, comprehensive health
insurance…and, finally -- beginning to reign in health care inflation.”
Romney says that the president’s health care plan is an example of
Washington overstepping its boundaries because it places a mandate on
100% of Americans. Instead, because his Massachusetts plan was limited
to the states, it is better tailored to the people of Massachusetts.
Following the Supreme Court ruling on health care this year, Romney
renewed his pledge to overturn Obama’s health care plan, calling it the
biggest tax increase in U.S. history – a point that Factcheck.org, an
independent website dismisses.
Elections 2012: Vice Presidents
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Paul Ryan, Congressman from Wisconsin's 1st district
Full name: Paul Davis Ryan
Age/DOB: 42; Born January 29, 1970 in Janesville, Wisconsin
Home: Janesville, Wisconsin
Elections 2012: Results
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Candidates need 270 electoral votes to win the presidency
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Obama: 332 Electoral Votes, 51%: 62,615,406
votes
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Romney: 206 Electoral Votes, 48%: 59,142,004
votes
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Cnn.com, 9:08 a.m. ET, Nov 20
Oath
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Pursuant to the Twentieth Amendment,
the president's term of office begins
at noon on January 20 of the year following the election.
This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the
four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before
executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally
required to take the presidential oath:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the
Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my
Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States”
Although not required, presidents have traditionally used a Bible to
take oath of office and suffixed "So help me God!" to the end of the
oath.
Further, though no law requires that the oath of office be
administered by any specific person, presidents are traditionally
sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States.
Oath
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In 2009, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, while
administering the oath to Barack Obama, incorrectly
recited part of the oath.
Roberts prompted, "That I will execute the Office of
President to the United States faithfully." Obama stopped
at "execute," and waited for Roberts to correct himself.
Roberts, after a false start, then followed Obama's
"execute" with "faithfully", which results in "execute
faithfully", which is also incorrect.
Obama then repeated Roberts' initial, incorrect prompt,
with the word "faithfully" after "United States„
The oath was re-administered the next day by Roberts at
the White House.
Tenure and term limits
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The term of office for president and vice president is four
years.
George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial
precedent of serving only two terms, which subsequent
presidents followed until 1940.
Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, attempts at a third term
were encouraged by supporters of Ulysses S. Grant and
Theodore Roosevelt; neither of these attempts
succeeded, however.
In 1940, Franklin Roosevelt declined to seek a third
term, but allowed his political party to "draft" him as their
presidential candidate and was subsequently elected to
a third term. In 1941, the U.S. became involved in World
War II, which later led voters to elect Roosevelt to a
fourth term in 1944.
Tenure and term limits
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After the war, and in response to
Roosevelt's shattering of precedent, the
Twenty-second Amendment was ratified:
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barring anyone from being elected president
more than twice, or once if that person served
more than half of another president's term.
Tenure and term limits
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Since the amendment's ratification, four presidents have served two
full terms:
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Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Ronald Reagan,
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush.
Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but
were defeated.
Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before
completing it.
Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to
be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for
only fourteen months following John F. Kennedy's assassination.
However, Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary,
surprising many Americans by stating 'I shall not seek, and I will not
accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your
president'.
Gerald Ford sought a full term, after serving out the last two years
and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected.
Vacancy or disability
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Vacancies in the office of president may arise under several
possible circumstances:
1.
2.
3.
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death
resignation
removal from office
Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of
Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including
the president, for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and
misdemeanors."
Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to
remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds
vote to convict.
Two presidents have thus far been impeached by the House,
Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither
was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however,
Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.
Vacancy or disability
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Under Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the
president may transfer the presidential powers and
duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting
president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of
the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate
stating the reasons for the transfer.
The president resumes the discharge of the presidential
powers and duties when he transmits, to those two
officials, a written declaration stating that resumption.
This transfer of power may occur for any reason the
president considers appropriate: in 2002 and again in
2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred
presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney.
In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical
procedure which required Bush to be sedated; Bush
returned to duty later the same day.
Vacancy or disability
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Under Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice
president and a majority of the Cabinet may transfer the
presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice
president once they transmit to the Speaker of the House and
the president pro tempore of the Senate a statement declaring
the president's incapacity to discharge the presidential powers
and duties.
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If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the
presidential powers and duties as acting president;
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However, the president can declare that no such inability
exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers
and duties.
If the vice president and cabinet contest this claim, it is up to
Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in
session, to decide the merit of the claim.
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Vacancy or disability
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The United States Constitution mentions the resignation
of the president but does not regulate the form of such a
resignation or the conditions for its validity.
By Act of Congress, the only valid evidence of the
president's decision to resign is a written instrument
declaring the resignation signed by the president and
delivered to the office of the Secretary of State.
On August 9, 1974, facing likely impeachment in the
midst of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became
the only president ever to resign from office.
Just before his resignation, the House Judiciary
Committee had reported favorably on articles of
impeachment against him.
Vacancy or disability
The Constitution states
that the vice president
becomes president
upon the removal from office, death or resignation of
the preceding president.
 If the offices of president and vice president both are
either vacant or have a disabled holder of that office,
the next officer in the presidential line of succession,
the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president.
 The line extends to the president pro tempore of the
Senate after the speaker, followed by every member
of the cabinet in a set order.
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The First Lady
Although there is no mention of the role of
first lady in the Constitution, it has
developed into an important position in
American government.
 Whereas first ladies were once confided to
simply setting the social calendar and
hosting White House receptions, today
they work on issues of public policy
advance agendas based on their own
interests.
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The First Lady
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Jacqueline Kennedy devoted herself to restoring
the White House and establishing the White
House Historical Association
Lady Bird Johnson continued Jacqueline
Kennedy’s work, creating the First Ladies
Commission for a More Beautiful Capital
Pat Nixon enhanced the White House art
collection
Betty Ford was closely identified with her fight
against drug and alcohol abuse, and founded
the Betty Ford Clinic.
The First Lady
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Rosalynn Carter worked with the mentally ill, and served
as the honorary chairwoman of the President’s
Commission on Mental Health
Nancy Reagan started the „Just Say No” campaign, and
anti-drug and anti-alcohol program targeted to young
Americans
Barbara Bush focused on adult literacy and eldery care
Hillary Rodham Clinton took active role in public policy,
serving as chairwoman of the National Commission on
Health Care Reform. She was also an advocate for
children, and author of the bestselling book It Takes a
Village
Laura Bush, like her mother-in-law, has promoted
literacy. She also played an important role in comforting
parents and children across the country in the weeks
and months following the terrorist attacks of Sept.11
The First Lady
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Michelle Obama:
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Michelle Robinson was born
and grew up in Chicago.
She graduated from Princeton
University and Harvard Law School.
Known for her style and fashion
sense, in July 2007 was listed
by Vanity Fair among
"10 of the World's Best
Dressed People”.
The First Lady
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During her early months as First Lady,
she has frequently visited homeless
shelters and soup kitchens. She has also sent
representatives to schools and advocated public service.
She has began advocating on behalf of military families.
Like her predecessors Clinton and Bush, who supported
the organic movement by instructing the White House
kitchens to buy organic food, Obama has received
attention by planting an organic garden and installing
bee hives on the South Lawn of the White House, which
will supply organic produce and honey to the First Family
and forr state dinners and other official gatherings