Summary
Contents
This comprehensive guide is the definitive source for researchers seeking an understanding of those who have occupied the White House and on the institution of the U.S. presidency. Readers turn to Guide to the Presidency for its wealth of facts and analytical chapters that explain the structure, powers, and operations of the office and the president’s relationship with Congress and the Supreme Court. The work is divided into eight distinct subject areas covering every aspect of the U.S. presidency.
Chapter 30 The President and the Supreme Court
Chapter 30 The President and the Supreme Court
In 1776 the American Declaration of Independence proclaimed that legitimate government rested on “the consent of the governed.” Eleven years later, the writers of the U.S. Constitution introduced the document with the words “We the People.” The Framers grounded the Constitution in popular consent, but they favored a representative, or indirect, instead of a direct, or pure, democracy.1 Accordingly, they designed institutional structures and constitutional guarantees to temper majority rule with protections for minority rights and respect for the rule of law.
The Framers’ system of checks and balances divided government powers both vertically and horizontally. In the federal system they devised, the new national government shared powers with existing state ...