Power and constraint : the accountable presidency after 9/11 / Jack Goldsmith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goldsmith, Jack L.

Contributor:

Herman V. Ames Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Presidents--United States--History--21st century.

Presidents.

Executive power--United States--History--21st century.

Executive power.

Separation of powers--United States--History--21st century.

Separation of powers.

History.

United States.

Physical Description:

xvi, 311 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton & Co., [2012]

Summary:

Conventional wisdom holds that 9/11 sounded the death knell for presidential accountability. In fact, the opposite is true. The novel powers that our post-9/11 commanders in chief assumed--endless detentions, military commissions, state secrets, broad surveillance, and more--are the culmination of a two-century expansion of presidential authority. But these new powers have been met with thousands of barely visible legal and political constraints--enforced by congressional committees, government lawyers, courts, and the media--that have transformed our unprecedentedly powerful presidency into one that is also unprecedentedly accountable. These constraints are the key to understanding why Obama continued the Bush counterterrorism program, and in this light, the events of the last decade should be seen as a victory, not a failure, of American constitutional government. We have actually preserved the framers' original idea of a balanced constitution, despite the vast increase in presidential power made necessary by this age of permanent emergency.--Publisher description.

Contents:

Introduction: checks and balances in an endless war

Part one. Continuity: the new normal; forces bigger than the president

Part two. Distributed checks and balances: accountability journalism; spies under a government microscope; warrior-lawyers; the GTMO bar

Part three. Assessment: the presidential synopticon

Afterword: after the next attack.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Herman V. Ames Fund.

ISBN:

0393081338

9780393081336

OCLC:

738350092

Publisher Number:

99947762167