Hey, Let's Dismantle Some of those darned Checks and Balances

If you have any sense of the recent history of the US presidency, the above sentence, applied TO that institution, will seem insane.

It appears to seem sane, though, to William G. Howell and Terry M. Moe, authors of RELIC, a new book about the presidency and related constitutional issues. Excessive suspicion of executive power is the late 18th century "relic" that they would like to excise from the US Constitution by amendment, on behalf of "effective government."

I haven't read the book, and am relying here on a review in the September issue of THE FEDERAL LAWYER. Unless the reviewer, Louis Fisher, is doing the authors an injustice, though, Howell and Moe seem headed down a dangerous road.

Whether the next President is named Clinton or Trump, my own response to the suggestion at the top of this blog post is, "hell no!"

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