What is the Unitary Executive?
Here’s how to understand the meaning of the term “unitary executive” being bandied about at Samuel Alito’s confirmation hearing. Suppose Congress decides that their campaign-finance laws aren’t being enforced aggressively enough. To step up enforcement, they create a national police force to investigate campaign finance cases, granting it powers equivalent to those of the FBI. The chief of the Campaign Finance Police Force will be hired by and serve at the pleasure of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Senate also creates an office of special prosecutors, outside of the US Attorney system, to take cases investigated by the new Campaign Finance Police to court. Does Congress have the power to create this special police force, or to create its own police force to patrol the US border with Mexico, or to create its own agency to close down schools not conforming to the No-Child-Left-Behind Act? The answer is no. The American system of government is based on the idea that powers to make, e
