There are some ideas we would like to consider in preparation for the second Trump administration. Why shouldn't we abolish the Senate?
in the end,Donald Trump revealedIf his plan to appoint his cronies to high-ranking positions gets in the way, he says he wants to ignore the Senate and usurp him.
Why not just get down to business and send senators home and tell them they can only come back when necessary to push Trump's agenda?
ofthe ancient romans did it— on the road from republic to empire is essentially to neutralize the legislature.
Of course, we know that things ultimately didn't go so well for the Roman Emperor.
However, President Trump is showing signs of imperialism by requesting that Congress allow him to adjourn for his executive and judicial appointments.
It is therefore essential that the House of Lords makes clear now that it will not be submitted, if it is unwilling to accept immediate and perhaps permanent exclusion. The United States should uphold its constitutional role in the system of checks and balances and not concede an inch to Trump.
I say this not out of any great love for the institution of the Senate. Despite having some great public servants, the Senate is deeply flawed. “Advice and Consent”roles are availableourFor the American people.
The framers of the Constitution included a requirement for the advice and consent of the Senate. Because the Constitution protects our freedoms by checking the power of the president. This serves as an important speed bump if the president wants to install unqualified or unsuitable people in powerful offices.
Many of theTime-consuming and even tedious verification processThe questionnaires candidates must fill out, the background checks they must pass, and the Senate public hearings they must attend give us an important window into a candidate's character and qualifications.
If President Trump has his way with vacation appointments, that won't happen. We'll all be left in the dark, except for some of the information reporters can dig up about people like the Secretary of Defense nominee.pete hegsethor his former attorney generalcandidateformer Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Florida).
That's not all. If President Trump were to try to force through recess appointments on constitutionally shaky grounds, he could face a serious constitutional crisis.
President Trump, lawmakers, and the courts are likely to engage in a fierce battle over the meaning of the constitutional provision that allows recess appointments to be made under certain conditions.
The question is not whether appointments should be allowed while the Senate is in recess. What President Trump appears to have requested could be quite similar to an engineering moratorium whose sole purpose is to circumvent the approval process.
ofThis is the only time the Supreme Court has ruled on the issue of recess appointments.In 2014, it ruled that some of President Obama's appointments were invalidated. and that issued a very severe warningHe opposed giving the president “routine powers that do not require Senate confirmation.”
Four conservative justices – Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas, and the late Justice Antonin Scalia.I went further and saidThat true recesses actually only occur between legislative sessions each year.
Three of these judges are still sitting on the court.Some analysts say thatEven the current right-wing Supreme Court may not side with President Trump on this issue.
Criticism of President Trump's request has already been widespread. and it comes from the sourceFrom hardcore conservative legal analyst Ed Whelan.70 civil rights organizations, including myself,joint letterIt was introduced in the Senate last week.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York joined in, warning incoming Majority Leader John Thune (D) to “stand firm” on the Senate's “constitutional obligations.” did. But so far, Thune has shown only mild resistance to the idea of a vacation schedule.I'm sayingHe's “going to struggle and do it the old-fashioned way.”
Looking at this, all I can think is that if Mr. Thune were to forcefully overthrow Mr. Trump now, he would make the Senate as irrelevant as ancient Rome on day one.
And it shouldn't be too difficult for him to stand firm against undermining the Senate's authority.
After all, as a conservative analystI wrote“If you're trying to circumvent the Constitution, you're doing something wrong.”
I couldn't agree more.
Svante Myrick is the president of People For the American Way.
