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Constitutionalism and
Presidential Prerogative: Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian
Perspectives
Lecture by Dr. Clement Fatovic
Assistant Professor of Political Science
at Florida International University
March 6, 2006
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001, there has been an intense political and constitutional debate in the United States
on the issue of executive prerogative, the power of the president to take
extraordinary actions without explicit legal authorization. President
Bush's warrantless domestic surveillance program, indefinite detention of
enemy combatants, and a variety of other actions have all been defended by
his administration as legitimate exercises of presidential prerogative
permitted by the US Constitution. However, critics have argued that the
president has exceeded his authority under the Constitution and jeopardized
civil liberties in the process.
Professor Fatovic's lecture
will consider the constitutionality of presidential prerogative by
examining the approaches of two key Founders with very different
conceptions of executive power, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.
Although Jefferson and Hamilton both believed that the president should
exercise prerogative in cases of genuine emergency, they disagreed over the
constitutionality of prerogative. Whereas Hamilton
located the authority for prerogative within the implied powers of the
Constitution, Jefferson expected
presidents to admit that they exceed the Constitution and seek post-hoc
approval from the public, a difference with important implications for both
democracy and constitutional practice. Professor Fatovic argues that an
examination of this debate between Jefferson and Hamilton helps us better
understand the costs and benefits of prerogative in the current situation.
You may access Professor Fatovic's
article on Presidential Prerogatives at JStor - The Scholarly Journal
Archive
through an on-campus computer.
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