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The Origins and Development of Executive Branch Czars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2013

MITCHEL A. SOLLENBERGER
Affiliation:
University of Michigan–Dearborn
MARK J. ROZELL
Affiliation:
George Mason University

Abstract

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Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

Notes

1. The formal title for Montgomery was the Director for Recovery of Auto Communities and Workers.

2. Tami Luhby, “Obama Taps Czar to Help Autoworkers,” CNN Money, 30 March 2009, at http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/30/news/economy/recovery_director/index.htm (accessed 7 February 2010).

3. Executive Order 13509 74 FR 30903 (23 June 2009).

4. James P. Pfiffner, “Presidential Use of White House ‘Czars.’” Testimony Before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Congress, 22 October 2009, 1. http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/ (accessed 13 May 2012).

5. Examples of dual appointments include: Paul V. McNutt, who served as director of the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services and administrator of the Federal Security Agency under Franklin D. Roosevelt. John Connally, who served as chair of the Cost of Living Council and secretary of treasury under Richard Nixon.

6. On this key point, see Shane, Peter M., Madison’s Nightmare: How Executive Power Threatens American Democracy (Chicago, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. chaps. 1 and 2; see also Fisher, Louis, On Appreciating Congress: The People’s Branch (Boulder, 2010)Google Scholar, esp. chaps. 2 and 3.

7. U.S. President’s Committee on Administrative Management, Report of the President’s Committee (Washington, D.C., 1937), 5.Google Scholar

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13. George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 13 October 1789, in The Life of Gouverneur Morris, ed. Jared Sparks (Boston, 1832), 2: 3–4; E. Wilder Spaulding, Ambassadors Ordinary and Extraordinary (Washington, D.C.), 6; Wriston, Henry M., “The Special Envoy,” Foreign Affairs 38 (1959): 220Google Scholar; Wriston, Henry M., Executive Agents in American Foreign Relations (Baltimore, 1929), 157.Google Scholar

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19. Executive Order 2594 (13 April 1917), in Richardson, Compilation of the Messages and Papers, 17: 8247.

20. Mock, James R. and Larson, Cedric, Words That Won the War: The Story of the Committee on Public Information, 1917–1919 (New York, 1968), 42.Google Scholar

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25. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, “Administration of the So-called Overman Act,” House Doc. no. 1841, 65th Cong., 3rd sess., 3 March 1919, 29.

26. Wilson, Woodrow, Constitutional Government in the United States (New York, 1917), 68.Google Scholar

27. Ibid., 14.

28. See, generally, Grant, James, Bernard M. Baruch: The Adventures of a Wall Street Legend (New York, 1983), 177–78Google Scholar; Baruch, Baruch: The Public Years, 58–69; Coit, Margaret L., Mr. Baruch (Boston, 1957), 185–94.Google Scholar

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30. Field, Bernard Baruch, 155; and 56 Cong. Rec. 4506 (3 April 1918).

31. In particular, see the statements by Senator Charles S. Thomas (D-Colo.) and Senator James Kimble Vardaman (D-Miss.) in 56 Cong. Rec. 4946, 4951 (11 April 1918).

32. Berdahl, Clarence Arthur, War Powers of the Executive in the United States (Urbana, 1921), 174Google Scholar; Porter, Bruce D., War and the Rise of the State (New York, 1994), 271.Google Scholar

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39. Executive Order 8985, 6 FR 6625 (19 December 1941). See also Sweeney, Michael S., Secrets of Victory: The Office of Censorship and the American Press and Radio in World War II (Chapel Hill, 2001), 36.Google Scholar

40. 55 Stat. 838, 840–841 (1941).

41. 55 Stat. 838 (1941).

42. Edward S. Corwin, The President: Office and Powers, 1787–1957 (New York, 1957), 243. See also Corwin, Edward S., Presidential Power and the Constitution (Ithaca, 1976), 165.Google Scholar

43. Sturm, Albert L., “Emergencies and the Presidency,” Journal of Politics 11 (February 1949): 135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44. 58 Stat. 361, 387 (1944).

45. 58 Stat. 785 (1944).

46. 59 Stat. 106, 134 (1945).

47. See, generally, Warshaw, Shirley Anne, Powersharing: White House-Cabinet Relations in the Modern Presidency (Albany, N.Y., 1996).Google Scholar

48. Mosher, Frederick, ed., “The President Needs Help” (Lanham, Md., 1988), 17Google Scholar, cited in Burke, John P., The Institutional Presidency: Organizing and Managing the White House from FDR to Clinton, 2nd ed. (Baltimore, 2000), 37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49. Hess, Stephen, Organizing the Presidency, 3rd ed. (Washington, D.C., 2002), 86.Google Scholar

50. Kearns, Doris, “Lyndon Johnson’s Political Personality,” in The Presidency Reappraised, ed. Cronin, Thomas E. and Tugwell, Rexford G. (New York, 1977), 128.Google Scholar

51. Hess, Organizing the Presidency, 92.

52. For more details on the law, see Sollenberger, Mitchel A. and Rozell, Mark J., “Prerogative Power and Executive Branch Czars: President Obama’s Signing Statement,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 41 (December 2011): 819–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

53. Rudalevige, Andrew, The New Imperial Presidency: Renewing Presidential Power After Watergate (Ann Arbor, 2005), 209–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54. For more information on Obama’s executive branch czars, see Rozell, Mark J. and Sollenberger, Mitchel A., “Obama’s Executive Branch Czars: The Constitutional Controversy and a Legislative Solution,” Congress and the Presidency 39 (January–April 2012): 7499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55. Michael O’Brien, “Republicans Introduce Bill to Eliminate Presidential ‘Czars,’” The Hill, 1 January 2011. Available from http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/136487-%3E%20republicans-introduce-bill-to-eliminate-presidential-czars.

56. Lisa Lerer, “GOP Senators Seek End to Czars,” Politico, 16 September 2009. Available from http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27214.html.

57. Barack Obama, “Statement by the President on H.R. 1473,” White House Website, 15 April 2011. Available from http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/04/15/statement-president-hr-1473.

58. See various papers in Crovitz, L. Gordon and Rabkin, Jeremy A., eds., The Fettered Presidency. (Washington, D.C., 1989)Google Scholar; Mansfield, Harvey, Taming the Prince: The Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power (New York, 1989).Google Scholar

59. See Ceaser, James W., “In Defense of Separation of Powers,” in Separation of Powers: Does It Still Work? ed. Goldwin, Robert A. and Kaufman, Art (Washington, D.C., 1986), 168–93.Google Scholar

60. Locke, John, Second Treatise of Government (Indianapolis, 1952)Google Scholar, sections 146–48.

61. Ibid., chap. 14, sec. 166.

62. See de Montesquieu, Baron, The Spirit of the Laws (New York, 1966)Google Scholar, book 2.

63. Roosevelt, Theodore, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography (New York, 1913), 388–89.Google Scholar

64. Peterson, Paul, “The Constitution and Separation of Powers,” in Taking the Constitution Seriously: Essays on the Constitution and Constitutional Law, ed. McDowell, Gary (Dubuque, 1981), 195.Google Scholar

65. See Calabresi, Stephen G. and Yoo, Christopher, The Unitary Executive: Presidential Power from Washington to Bush (New Haven, 2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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67. Taft, William Howard, Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers (New York, 1916), 138.Google Scholar

68. Sollenberger and Rozell, “Prerogative Power and Executive Branch Czars,” 819–33.

69. U.S. Constitution, Art. II, sec. 2.

70. United States v. Maurice, 26 Fed. Cas. 1211, 1214 (C.C. Va. 1823).

71. Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 126, footnote 162 (1976).

72. United States v. Hartwell, 73 U.S. (6 Wall.) 385, 393 (1867).

73. 99 U.S. 508, 511–12.

74. 424 U.S. 1, 126.

75. Office of Legal Counsel, “Officers of the United States Within the Meaning of the Appointments Clause,” 16 April 2007, at http://www.justice.gov/olc/2007/appointmentsclausev10.pdf (accessed 11 May 2012), 4.

76. Ibid., 11–12.

77. Ibid., 12.

78. Scholette, Kevin, “The American Czars,” Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy 20 (Fall 2010): 233.Google Scholar

79. 487 U.S. 654, 671–72 (1988).

80. Bravin, Nick, “Is Morrison v. Olson Still Good Law? The Court’s New Appointments Clause Jurisprudence,” Columbia Law Review 98 (1998): 1116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

81. 487 U.S. 654, 671 (1988).

82. 520 U.S. 651, 661–62 (1997).

83. Ibid., 662–663 (1997).

84. Martin, John R., “Morrison v. Olson and Executive Power,” Texas Review of Law & Politics 4 (Spring 2000): 529.Google Scholar

85. Weyand, Jacqueline M., “Presidential Appointment of Czars: Executive Power Play or Administrative Renewal?Northwestern Interdisciplinary Law Review 3 (Spring 2010): 140.Google Scholar

86. Executive Order 8248, 4 FR 3864 (8 September 1939).

87. 53 Stat. 561 (1939).

88. 92 Stat. 2445 (1978).

89. U.S. Constitution, Art. I, sec. 1.

90. Locke, John, Two Treatises of Government (New York, 1947), 194.Google Scholar

91. Hampton v. United States, 276 U.S. 394, 409.

92. 84 Stat. 799 (1970); Kosters, Marvin H., Controls and Inflation: The Economic Stabilization Program in Retrospect (Washington, D.C., 1975), 314.Google Scholar

93. Executive Order 11615, 36 FR 15727 (15 August 1971); Executive Order 11627, 35 FR 11627 (15 October 1971).

94. 85 Stat. 38 (1971).

95. 64 Stat. 419 (1950); 3 U.S.C. § 301 (2006).

96. See Executive Order 11592, 36 FR 8555 (6 May 1971).

97. 1971 Pub. Papers 1024 (7 October 1971). See also Kosters, Controls and Inflation, 18; and Weber, Arnold R., In Pursuit of Price Stability: The Wage-Price Freeze of 1971 (Washington, D.C., 1973), 23.Google Scholar

98. Pallitoo, Robert M. and Weaver, William G., Presidential Secrecy and the Law (Baltimore, 2007), 115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

99. See, generally, Rozell, Mark J., Executive Privilege: Presidential Power, Secrecy, and Accountability, Third Edition (Lawrence, Kans., 2010).Google Scholar

100. Executive Order 13507, 74 FR 17071–73 (8 April 2009).

101. Neil King Jr., “Auto Czar Quits Post Six Months into the Job,” Wall Street Journal, 14 July 2009, A1.

102. David Shepardson, “The Inside Story of the GM, Chrysler Bailouts,” Detroit News, 24 November 2009, A1.

103. Executive Order 13503, 74 FR 8139 (19 February 2009).

104. John Cornyn, Statement at Hearing, “Examining the History and Legality of Executive Branch ‘Czars,’” 6 October 2009, 2, http://judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/10-06-09%20Cornyn%20testimony.pdf (accessed 11 May 2012).

105. See Healy, Gene, The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power (Washington, D.C., 2008).Google Scholar

106. On this point, see Barger, Harold M., The Impossible Presidency: Illusions and Realities of Executive Power (Glenview, Ill., 1984)Google Scholar, chap. 1.

107. See Walcott, Charles E. and Hult, Karen M., Governing the White House: From Hoover Through LBJ (Lawrence, Kans., 1995).Google Scholar