Two Classic Cases

Abstract

This chapter reviews the text, history, and logical structure of Article II, which provides an objective answer on what approach makes any difference in deciding cases without any need to delve into issues of motive or policy. It covers two leading Supreme Court cases that pitted executive against congressional authority and fractured the Court into multiple opinions. It also discusses the Steel Seizure Case, an executive order that seized the United States' steel mills to impose a labor settlement that would avert a strike and keep armaments flowing to America's military. The chapter looks at Zivotofsky v. Kerry, the first and only case in American history in which the Court held that the President is constitutionally entitled to disobey a congressional statute based on his own supervening powers. It explains that passports are formal communications between the State Department and foreign nations, asking that an American citizen be given egress and protection.