A Leash on the President

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitition

He [The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States.

The Leash

As the authors of the Constitution, the States were determined to maintain a leash on the executive branch in order to prevent the President from acting in a tyrannical manner. The States maintained a voice in the U.S. Senate until the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913. U.S. Senators were tasked with voting in a manner supportive of the preferences of the State legislature of the State of whom the Senator represented because their seat in the U.S. Senate was the result of being appointed by the State legislature. The States, through their delegates at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, sought to ensure the approval of the States was necessary for a number of tasks the President may carry out in an attempt to keep the President reined in. Treaties and appointments require a two-thirds ratification from the Senate in order to become official. The attempt by Presidents to circumvent this requirement by renaming treaties “agreements,” or by appointing “czars” to carry out some of the duties of the executive branch, has become a common theme. Renaming treaties “agreements,” and entering into those agreements without Senatorial ratification, and the appointment of czars without the Senate’s oversight, are unconstitutional, and therefore lawless acts by the President of the United States.

The 17th Amendment, in violation of the final clause of Article V., removes the equal suffrage of the States in the U.S. Senate. The States who refused to ratify the amendment, and those States added to the union since the implementation of the 17th Amendment, have had their equal suffrage in the U.S. Senate removed without their consent.

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