Evaluate the view that Congress has lost control of it's legislative function Flashcards
1
Q
intro
A
it still controls legislation
2
Q
para 1 theme
A
president
3
Q
para 2 theme
A
supreme court
4
Q
para 3 theme
A
interest groups
5
Q
para 1 - president
A
- Congress, especially during times of divided government, are an incredibly effective limit on the power of the President when it comes to legislating.
- Congress has demonstrated a willingness to use the veto override, in some cases to great effect. E.g. Congress counter vetoed Obama’s veto to pass the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which would have allowed families who were affected by 9/11 to sue Saudi Arabia.
- Congress have overseen investigations into actions such as Benghazi, which had far-reaching impacts. There were also successful hearings in October 2013 over helathcare.gov. (platform that wasted $300 million). Resulted in the resignation of Kathleen Sebelius.
When Bush lost both houses in the 2006 mid terms, the number of hearing about combat operations increased dramatically. There were almost 100 hearings on the Iraq War in the first two months alone.
6
Q
para 1 - however
A
- Congress, especially during times of divided government, are an incredibly effective limit on the power of the President when it comes to legislating.
- Congress has demonstrated a willingness to use the veto override, in some cases to great effect. E.g. Congress counter vetoed Obama’s veto to pass the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which would have allowed families who were affected by 9/11 to sue Saudi Arabia.
- Congress have overseen investigations into actions such as Benghazi, which had far-reaching impacts. There were also successful hearings in October 2013 over helathcare.gov. (platform that wasted $300 million). Resulted in the resignation of Kathleen Sebelius.
When Bush lost both houses in the 2006 mid terms, the number of hearing about combat operations increased dramatically. There were almost 100 hearings on the Iraq War in the first two months alone.
7
Q
para 1 - rebuttal
A
The fact is that executive order do not carry a large amount of weight, as they can be removed by the following president. If a president really wants to be successful and wants to have legacy they will need to pass legitimate legislation through congress, like Obamacare.
8
Q
para 2 - Supreme Court
A
- The Supreme Court is incredibly limited in their actual power to hear cases. They can only rule laws as constitutional or unconstitutional. Also, given judicial restraint, the Court only takes between 60 and 100 cases of the average 8,000 they receive a year. This number has been nearer to the lower numbers since Roberts took chief justice in 2005. Given such a small number of cases, it would be naïve to say that they have a large number of influence on all areas of policy
Judicial restraint plays off of precedence and ‘stare decisis’; (to stand by which is decided). if a court has previously made a judgement on something, the court will avoid returning to it, explaining why issues like gay marriage and abortion have not returned to the court despite their controversial nature.
9
Q
para 2 - however
A
- As the constitution is sovereign, this leads to the Supreme Court being sovereign, and this menas that they can be incredibly activist in their opposition of Congress’ legislation.
- Through judicial review, judges possess the power to find laws and governmental actions unconstitutional, justices can strike down actions or acts of the elected branches. In fact it was effectively the SC who decided who was President in 2000 in the case Bush v Gore.
- The power of judicial review has gone beyond constitutional interpretation, with the SC also adjudicating alleged violations of federal laws by state law or by private organisations. Judicial review puts the SC into a more superior place than Congress and the President in matters of legislation and public policy, what has been described as ‘government by judiciary’. The Liberal Judge Sonia Sotomayor was quoted saying ‘the Supreme court is where policy is made’. This has been supported by Bickell’s theory of the ‘counter-majoritarian’ Supreme Court, claiming it has been excessively powerful, acting as an unelected force which acts against the elected branches.
Citizens United v FEC (2010) allowed for the development of Super-PACs, which would previously have been impossible due to the Bipartisan Campaign reform act. In effect, nine unelected judges had a substantial role not only in shaping the policy surrounding elections, but also in overturning a law created elected by representatives.
10
Q
para 2 - rebuttal
A
The fact is that the Supreme Court has control over a limited amount of legislation, due to the limited amounts of cases they hear. This means that although the Supreme Court has power over some legislation, it is only a limited amount of it, and Congress still controls the overall legislative agenda.
11
Q
para 3 - interest groups
A
- There are various legal limits on the power and influence of IGs. Congress has passed laws to control lobbying and to limit campaign donations.
Constitutional factors such as the Separation of powers and federalism (creating lots of access points) should, in theory, make it difficult for any single IG to be come too powerful
12
Q
para 3 - however
A
- There is little compromise between the two parties at the moment. E.g. during the passage of Obamacare, the GOP struggle to have much influence as the Bill passed through a Democrat-controlled Congress. Yet interest groups like the AMA and PhRMA did manage to influence the final bill (PhRMA lobbied hard and succeeded in amending a clause that would have allowed cheaper import of drugs from Canada)
Gun control is another good example: even when the Democrats were in full / partial control of Congress during the Obama years, no gun control measure was passed. This was almost certainly due to NRA pressure
13
Q
para 3 - rebuttal
A
However, in reality, if interest groups want to influence policy at all they will have to go through congress and have the support of one of the parties in Congress, such as the NRAs relationship with the Republicans.
