Also known as: Presidents of the United States · U.S. President · POTUS · President
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The chief executive officer of the United States in whom the Constitution vests the executive power. The officeholder serves a four-year term and is elected through a process in which states appoint electors equal to their congressional representation.
Piper Patel, governor of a state with ten House members and two senators, directed the legislature to appoint twelve electors. Those electors met and cast ballots for President. The process fulfilled the constitutional requirement that each state select a number of electors matching its congressional delegation.
An alien held as an enemy combatant petitioned for habeas review after the President ordered indefinite detention. The court permitted the challenge because the substitute process allowed contesting the President's detention authority, military fact-finding, and introduction of later-discovered exculpatory evidence.
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The House charged the President with bribery and high crimes. After Senate conviction by two-thirds vote, the President was removed from office under the constitutional standard for civil officers.
Congress passed a statute allowing one house to veto an executive suspension of deportation. The Court held the mechanism unconstitutional because it altered legal relations without bicameral passage and presentment to the President.
The President ordered a state's National Guard unit into federal training abroad. The governor's consent was not required because Congress had authorized the order under the Militia Clauses even without a national emergency.
A presidential aide performed routine administrative tasks unrelated to foreign affairs. The court denied absolute immunity and applied only qualified immunity because the functions were not closely tied to presidential decisionmaking in sensitive national matters.
Article II Section 1 vests the executive power in a President of the United States who holds office for a four-year term and is chosen through the electoral process described in that section.
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Congress may do so under the Militia Clauses for training outside the United States even absent a national emergency, as the authorization itself supplies the necessary federal authority.
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Article II Section 4 permits removal upon impeachment and conviction for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
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It bypasses the requirements of bicameralism and presentment to the President that apply whenever Congress exercises legislative power altering rights or duties outside the legislative branch.
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No. Absolute immunity applies only when the aide performs discretionary functions in sensitive areas of national concern closely tied to presidential decisionmaking. Otherwise only qualified immunity is available.
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…the Executive. A commission is only evidence of an appointment. Delivery is not necessary to the validity of letters patent. The President cannot authorize a Secretary of State to omit the performance of those duties which are enjoined by law. When a commission for an officer not holding his office at the will of the…