Three Presidents, Three Conflicts

This chapter proposes an approach to the separation of powers that can be applied to presidents of all ideological stripes and personal dispositions. It cites George W. Bush and the authorization of torture, in which the Bush Administration authorized a written list of enhanced interrogation techniques, such as the notorious practice of water-boarding. It also covers President Obama's agreement between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, along with certain other countries, under which Iran agreed to certain limitations on its development of nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. The chapter describes the impeachment and acquittal of Donald Trump by the Senate as the most acrimonious separation-of-powers conflict in the tumultuous Trump years. It talks about the House vote on impeachment and the Senate vote on removal that surpassed the partisan impeachment and removal proceedings for President William Jefferson Clinton.