To Be a President

1
To Be a President
2
Rules of Succession

• 1947 Presidential Succession Act
• 1-18
• 25th Amendment
• President can name a Vice President if the VP
  resigns or dies

You president if 16 other important people die at
once
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Formal Powers of the President

• The Appointment Power
• Ambassadors, public ministers, consuls, judges
  of the Supreme Court, and other offices
• Over 3,000 appointments during a Presidents term
• Court appointments to the Supreme Court and
  federal bench give the president broad influence
  that lasts beyond his term in office
• Appointing Cabinet members is not a
• Constitutional Power of the President

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Veto Power

• President can reject any congressional
  legislation either through a general veto or a
  pocket veto
• Types of Vetos
• Pocket Veto
• A special veto power exercised at the end of a
  legislative session whereby bills not signed by
  the chief executive die after a specified time
• Constitution- If the president holds a bill for
  ten days without signing or vetoing it, the bill
  becomes a law if Congress is in session and is
  pocket vetoed if congress is out of session.
• Line-Item Veto (UNCONSTITUTIONAL)
• Used by most Governors in most states to veto
  sections of appropriations bills while signing
  the remainder of the bill into law
• Clinton v. New York- UNCONSTITUIONAL FOR
  PRESIDENTS BASED ON ______________________
• Veto- The entire law is ruled invalid. Can be
  overridden Congress with a 2/3rds vote.

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Informal Power

• Executive Order
• A rule or regulation passed by the President that
  has the effect of a law.
• Power comes from precedents, custom, and
  constitutional interpretation
• Emancipation Proclamation
• New Deal
• How we deal with enemy combatants freezing
  assets, interrogation, and due process rights
• Recruiting and Hiring recent graduates
• Threat of a Veto (informal power)
• Historically there have been over 2,500
  presidential vetoes
• About 100 have been overridden
• You do the Math
• I didnt

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The Power to Make Treaties

• The President has the Power but 2/3rds of the
  Senate has to approve
• Also President can receive Ambassadors
• Also has the power to formally recognize the
  existence of a country

President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev
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Informal Power

• Executive Agreements
• Force of a treaty without the Advice and Consent
  of the Senate
• Expires when a President Leaves office
• Constitutional-Over 9,000 executive agreements
  and only 1300 treaties
• WW2 Roosevelt traded 50 overage destroyers to
  Britain for air bases in western Britain
• Checks on Executive Agreements
• Expires when the president leaves office
• Congress can choose not to fund the agreement

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Power to Convene Congress
According to the Constitution the President MUST
give a State of The Union
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Pardoning Power

• Check on the Judiciary
• Releases the Individual from the punishment or
  legal consequences from a crime. Restores all
  rights and privileges

Gerald Ford Pardoned Richard Nixon after the
Watergate Scandal
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Informal Power

• United States v. Nixon
• Executive Privilege does not extend to criminal
  matters
• Clinton v. Reno
• Executive Privilege does not extend to personal
  matters
• Nixon v. Fitzgerald
• The president cant be sued for actions taken in
  office

• Executive Privilege
• The right of executive officials to refuse to
  appear before or to withhold information from a
  legislative committee or a court.

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Number 1 Power of the President

• Power of Persuasion
• The ability to form a direct link between the
  executive office and the people
• If you get the people on your side, then you get
  Congress on your side.