1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Elon Musk can’t balance the budget
Jesus it’s like you people have never even had a civics class.
The function of the President definitely isn’t just to carry out the law, it’s also to be the head of the Executive Branch and the commander in chief. Choosing to dissolve part of the executive branch (ie one of the agencies) could be taken to a court but it’s definitely not a given that he can’t.
Comment by tadrinth at 28/11/2024 at 06:22 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I recognize he has other responsibilities, but being head of the executive branch just lets him appoint and fire the folks running the agencies.
Being commander in chief lets him command the army.
Neither of those lets him get around his constitutional duty to uphold the law.
And he cannot uphold a law creating a department by abolishing that department.
He cannot even hinder the department by denying it the funding Congress granted; SCOTUS has been very clear on that.
I don't see any way that abolishing a department that has been allocated funding could *possibly* be upheld by a reasonable SCOTUS as somehow not stomping all over Congress's power of the purse.
If there are departments *not* explicitly created by federal legislation, e.g. a law authorizes the President to create departments or agencies without specifying them, and then the President creates them, then sure, those he can probably dissolve. But I don't think that's most agencies.