Yes, You Can. But Should You?

One of my Mother's favorite maxims was: "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it."

I think about that a lot lately, usually when the news announces that Donald Trump has done some questionable thing because the president has the authority to (fill in the action du jour). Want to override the advice of intelligence and security professionals and demand that your children get top secret security clearances? The president has the authority to grant security clearances*. Want to launch missiles at (insert country here)? According to the War Powers Resolution, the president has the authority to commit forces without a Constitutionally-mandated Congressional declaration of war**. Want to build a wall that Congress won't support? The president has the authority to bypass Congress by declaring a national emergency***.

It doesn't just apply to Mr Trump, either. Upset at election reform legislation passed by the House of Representatives? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was able to prevent it from having Senate action because I get to decide what we vote on. Angry because you can't get Congress to do anything? President Obama had a phone and a pen.

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it, as Mom would have said. Or, in the words of Dan Carlin, imagine that power in the hands of someone you hate.

Food for thought, for those of us still thinking nowadays.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* 50 USC §3341 specifies the process for granting security clearances, but as far as I can see it only gives the president the authority to designate agencies to grant clearances. It does not grant the president the power to grant clearances on his own, although this may be considered a derivative of his other powers ... I'm not enough of a legal eagle to decide.

** Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to raise and support an army and to declare war. The last time there was a formal declaration of war was in 1942, when Congress declared war on the Axis allies of Germany, Italy, and Japan.

*** 50USC §1631:  "Declaration of national emergency by Executive order; authority; publication in Federal Register; transmittal to Congress. When the President declares a national emergency, no powers or authorities made available by statute for use in the event of an emergency shall be exercised unless and until the President specifies the provisions of law under which he proposes that he, or other officers will act. Such specification may be made either in the declaration of a national emergency, or by one or more contemporaneous or subsequent Executive orders published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress."