A lesson from Harry Truman
There is even a hierarchy between the two political branches with Congress holding a slight edge. Consider the Court's landmark 1952 decision in the Steel Seizure case, also known as Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company v. Sawyer. The case, which involved President Harry Truman's decision to take over the steel industry when it was in the midst of a labor dispute that threatened to stall production and create economic instability, ended with a stinging rebuke of the president and the establishment of a formula of sorts by which to judge the relative power positions held by these often competing branches of government.
Justice Hugo Black wrote the majority opinion, siding with the steel industry. But it was Justice Robert Jackson's concurrence which carried forth as a guiding principle. Jackson said that there are three categories of congressional-executive disputes: those where the president is attempting to use power expressing or implicitly established by Congress; those where Congress has said nothing on the issue; and those where Congress has been clearly in opposition to the president. These, he said, should be seen in descending order of legitimacy. In other words, the president needs Congress's assent or, barring that, silence to act within the scope of constitutional authority.
This Congress -- our Congress, that is -- may not, as of today, have spoken on the issue of raising the debt ceiling, but it has been anything but silent, suggesting, in Justice Jackson's formula, that not only is the debt ceiling a "political issue," but the president does not have the authority here to act alone.
For an executive of the world's most powerful nation, that can be bitter medicine. Back in 1952, when the Court told Harry Truman to relinquish his hold over the steel industry, the combative president was stunned. Later that afternoon, Justice Hugo Black invited him over to his home for a drink. "Hugo," the president reportedly said to his host, "I don't much care for your law, by golly this bourbon is good."
Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-brewster/14th-amendment-debt-ceiling_b_910858.htmlAsk me sometime how the head of Chicago's city sewers got FDR elected for a third term... it's a hoot!
:D
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