Power Sharing : Emergency Powers

Question 1

Youngstown + Steel Seizure

Answer 1

Facts: President Truman ordered Sawyer (D), the Secretary of Commerce, to take possession of the nation’s steel mills and keep them running on the eve of a steelworkers’ strike.

Rule: Constitution does not permit the President to seize private property to prevent the consequences of a labor dispute.

Question 2

Zivotofsky II (2015)

Answer 2

Facts:
U.S. citizens whose child was born in Jerusalem sought to have his birthplace listed as Israel on his passport pursuant to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, but the government refused to recognize any nation as sovereign over Jerusalem.

Rule: The Foreign Relations Authorization Act unconstitutionally interferes with the President’s power to recognize foreign nations.

Question 3

Dames & Moore

Answer 3

Facts: Instant Facts President Reagan issued an executive order suspending all U.S. citizens’ claims pending against the government of Iran.

Rule: The President has the power to suspend pending claims against foreign governments where such action is necessary to the resolution of a major foreign policy dispute and where Congress has acquiesced. [Congress is silent].

Congress has two options to override presidency plans: Impeachment of president or to affect the budget so the president can’t use money for something.

Question 4

Hamdi

Answer 4

Instant Facts An American citizen was captured fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan and detained in the United States as an enemy combatant.

Black Letter Rule The government may detain citizens as “enemy combatants,” but due process demands that they be afforded a meaningful opportunity to contest the factual basis for the detention before a neutral decisionmaker.

Question 5

Rasul

Answer 5

Congress later passes a statute saying, no federal habeas for these people, instead we will set up our own special mechanism for dealing with these people. Set up military tribunals to make those decisions and purported to exclude judicial review.

Rule: The statute extends the right to seek justice from habeas corpus in federal courts.

Question 6

Hamdan

Answer 6

Military commissions may be used instead of courts in three contexts: (1) they may be substituted for civilian courts when martial law has been declared; (2) they may be established to try civilians “as part of a temporary military government over occupied enemy territory or territory regained from an enemy where civilian government cannot and does not function”; and (3) they may be convened as an incident to the conduct of war, when there is a need to seize and subject to disciplinary measures those enemies who, in an attempt to thwart our military efforts, have violated the law of war.

Question 7

Boumediene

Answer 7

Instant Facts Accused terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, including Boumediene (P), petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus to challenge their detention.

Black Letter Rule The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus may only be denied in accordance with the requirements of the Suspension Clause of the United States Constitution