Presidential Powers, Part 1

Before the Civil War, the Supreme Court struck down one federal statute. Presidents vetoed roughly two dozen bills on constitutional grounds. Akhil Reed Amar reads the presidential oath to explain why.

This lecture works outward from what Article II says about the person who holds the office. Amar covers the original vice presidency, filled by whoever finished second rather than by a running mate, and reads it as evidence that executive power is continuous: a vice president steps in the instant a president dies, where a vacant House seat waits for an election. He revisits James Madison's objection to the succession statute, which put legislative leaders in line even though the Constitution names "officers" and the Incompatibility Clause bars a member of Congress from holding executive office. The heart of the lecture is the oath, one of the few passages the framers wrote out word for word: no religious test, an option to affirm rather than swear, and a promise to defend the Constitution rather than every statute Congress passes, which is where the constitutional veto comes from.