Analytical Reading Activity Topic 2 6 Student v3 PDF

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ANALYTICAL READING ACTIVITIES TOPIC 2.6

AP United States Government and Politics

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Acknowledgements AP Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Team Erin Spaulding, Senior Director, AP Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Amy Smallwood-Ringenberg, Director, AP Instructional Design

AP U.S. Government and Politics Instructional Design Team Alicia Ross, Blue Ridge High School, New Milford, PA Michael Dies, YES Prep Southeast, Houston, TX Matt Furfaro, Concord Community High School, Elkhart, IN

Other Contributors John R. Williamson Christopher Budano

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AP U.S. Government and Politics

Topic 2.6: The Expansion of Presidential Power Source Analysis Before You Read Remember that under the Articles of Confederation, there was no national executive. Anti-Federalists expressed concerns that a singular executive might threaten the rights of the people. The debate over the ratification of the then proposed Constitution provides context for the argument that Hamilton writes in Federalist No. 70 as he seeks to persuade New Yorkers to ratify the document. Over our history, the power of the presidency has grown. In the chart below, list how you think the power of the presidency has grown, some of the reasons why, and how you think this expansion affects the interaction among the three branches of government. How the power of the presidency has grown

Analytical Reading Activities

Required Document: Excerpts from The Federalist No. 70 by Alexander Hamilton Paired with: Excerpts from the Majority and Concurring Opinions from Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company v. Sawyer (1952)

Related Concepts: ◼

Debate over the Constitution

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Presidential Power

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Expressed Powers

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Implied Powers

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Inherent Powers

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Executive Order

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Separation of Powers

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Checks and Balances

Process Reasons for this expansion of power

Explain the relevance or significance of processes and/ or interactions.

Source Analysis

Effects of this expansion on the interaction among the three branches of government

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Explain how the implications of the author’s argument or perspective may affect political principles, institutions, processes, policies, and behaviors.

AP U.S. Government and Politics

Analytical Reading Activities

The Federalist No. 70 While Hamilton argues at length against a committee council sharing executive powers, this essay has been excerpted here to narrow the focus on why investing power in the presidency will not threaten the liberty of Americans, but would actually provide a way to protect individual rights. As you read, focus on Hamilton’s argument and the implications of that argument as reflected in the Constitution.

The Executive Department Further Considered From the New York Packet Tuesday, March 18, 1788.

Author: Alexander Hamilton

To the People of the State of New York:

Academic Vocabulary THERE is an idea, which is not without its advocates, that a vigorous Executive is inconsistent with the genius of republican government. The enlightened well-wishers to this species of government must at least hope that the supposition is destitute of foundation; since they can never admit its truth, without at the same time admitting the condemnation of their own principles.

Use what you’ve already learned and context clues from the reading to define republican government.

Source Analysis Highlight or underline why, according to Hamilton, a strong presidency is beneficial to the people.

Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.

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Connect to Content What are the responsibilities of the president that make “energy in the executive” necessary?

AP U.S. Government and Politics

Every man the least conversant in Roman story, knows how often that republic was obliged to take refuge in the absolute power of a single man, under the formidable title of Dictator, as well against the intrigues of ambitious individuals who aspired to the tyranny, and the seditions of whole classes of the community whose conduct threatened the existence of all government, as against the invasions of external enemies who menaced the conquest and destruction of Rome.

Analytical Reading Activities

Source Analysis Underline where Hamilton argues that weakness in the executive results in a bad or weak government.

There can be no need, however, to multiply arguments or examples on this head. A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.

Taking it for granted, therefore, that all men of sense will agree in the necessity of an energetic Executive, it will only remain to inquire, what are the ingredients which constitute this energy? How far can they be combined with those other ingredients which constitute safety in the republican sense? And how far does this combination characterize the plan which has been reported by the convention?

Check Your Understanding What does Hamilton assume that all sensible men will conclude?

Source Analysis Contrast the information in the last paragraph on this page with what Hamilton says about Rome in the first paragraph. What does he mean by “safety in the republican sense”? Use the space below the third paragraph to compose your answer.

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AP U.S. Government and Politics

The ingredients which constitute energy in the Executive are, first, unity; secondly, duration; thirdly, an adequate provision for its support; fourthly, competent powers.

Analytical Reading Activities

Check Your Understanding Rewrite the four “ingredients” of executive energy in your own words in the space below this passage.

The ingredients which constitute safety in the republican sense are, first, a due dependence on the people, secondly, a due responsibility.

Those politicians and statesmen who have been the most celebrated for the soundness of their principles and for the justice of their views, have declared in favor of a single Executive and a numerous legislature. They have with great propriety, considered energy as the most necessary qualification of the former, and have regarded this as most applicable to power in a single hand, while they have, with equal propriety, considered the latter as best adapted to deliberation and wisdom, and best calculated to conciliate the confidence of the people and to secure their privileges and interests.

That unity is conducive to energy will not be disputed. Decision, activity, secrecy, and despatch will generally characterize the proceedings of one man in a much more eminent degree than the proceedings of any greater number; and in proportion as the number is increased, these qualities will be diminished. …

Source Analysis Paraphrase Hamilton’s argument explaining the implications of having a single person executive versus a committee.

Connect to Content Underline ways in which Hamilton’s description of the executive matches the way presidents function in our government today. Use the space below the last paragraph to expand on and explain the implications of one of these actions or functions.

propriety: appropriateness or suitability

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AP U.S. Government and Politics

... In the legislature, promptitude of decision is oftener an evil than a benefit. The differences of opinion, and the jarrings of parties in that department of the government, though they may sometimes obstruct salutary plans, yet often promote deliberation and circumspection, and serve to check excesses in the majority. When a resolution too is once taken, the opposition must be at an end. That resolution is a law, and resistance to it punishable.

Analytical Reading Activities

Source Analysis How does Hamilton view the processes and interactions of the legislature?

But no favorable circumstances palliate or atone for the disadvantages of dissension in the executive department. Here, they are pure and unmixed. There is no point at which they cease to operate. They serve to embarrass and weaken the execution of the plan or measure to which they relate, from the first step to the final conclusion of it.

They constantly counteract those qualities in the Executive which are the most necessary ingredients in its composition, vigor and expedition, and this without any counterbalancing good.

In the conduct of war, in which the energy of the Executive is the bulwark of the national security, every thing would be to be apprehended from its plurality.

salutary: positive or beneficial palliate: to reduce or ease the effects of atone: to make amends

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Check Your Understanding How are decisiveness and quick action good qualities when exercised by the executive?

Source Analysis Why is this energy especially important in the arena of national security?

AP U.S. History

After You Read Thinking Like a Political Scientist Reasoning Process: Process Describe the characteristics or traits that Hamilton views as essential in the executive.

According to Hamilton, how is a president with power and energy not only important to good government but also critical to protecting the rights of the people?

Political Science Disciplinary Practices Source Analysis Using what you’ve learned about the American governmental system established in the Constitution, how did Hamilton’s argument affect political institutions?

How did Hamilton’s argument affect political behaviors?

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Analytical Reading Activities

AP U.S. Government and Politics

Analytical Reading Activities

Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Syllabus of the case from the majority opinion: To avert a nationwide strike of steel workers in April 1952, which he believed would jeopardize national defense, the president [Harry Truman] issued an Executive Order directing the Secretary of Commerce [Charles Sawyer] to seize and operate most of the steel mills. The Order was not based upon any specific statutory authority, but was based generally upon all powers vested in the president by the Constitution and laws of the United States and as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. The Secretary issued an order seizing the steel mills and directing their presidents to operate them as operating managers for the United States in accordance with his regulations and directions. The President promptly reported these events to Congress; but Congress took no action. It had provided other methods of dealing with such situations, and had refused to authorize governmental seizures of property to settle labor disputes. The steel companies sued the Secretary in a Federal District Court, praying for a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief. The District Court issued a preliminary injunction, which the Court of Appeals stayed. As you read the text, consider how the majority opinion and the concurring opinion describe how the power of the president should be analyzed. Also pay attention to the way the relationship between the president and Congress is affected by presidential reaches for power.

Source Information: United States Supreme Court

Academic Vocabulary

Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952)

Define the phrase legislative function.

MR. JUSTICE BLACK delivered the opinion of the Court.

We are asked to decide whether the President was acting within his constitutional power when he issued an order directing the Secretary of Commerce to take possession of and operate most of the Nation’s steel mills. The mill owners argue that the President’s order amounts to lawmaking, a legislative function which the Constitution has expressly confided to the Congress, and not to the President.

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What does this mean in context of the President’s actions?

AP U.S. Government and Politics

The Government’s position is that the order was made on findings of the President that his action was necessary to avert a national catastrophe which would inevitably result from a stoppage of steel production, and that, in meeting this grave emergency, the President was acting within the aggregate of his constitutional powers as the Nation’s Chief Executive and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States....

Analytical Reading Activities

Check Your Understanding Underline why the Truman administration claimed it had the authority to seize the steel mills.

II The President’s power, if any, to issue the order must stem either from an act of Congress or from the Constitution itself. There is no statute that expressly authorizes the President to take possession of property as he did here. Nor is there any act of Congress to which our attention has been directed from which such a power can fairly be implied.. …

.... Moreover, the use of the seizure technique to solve labor disputes in order to prevent work stoppages was not only unauthorized by any congressional enactment; prior to this controversy, Congress had refused to adopt that method of settling labor disputes. When the Taft-Hartley Act was under consideration in 1947, Congress rejected an amendment which would have authorized such governmental seizures in cases of emergency...

It is clear that, if the President had authority to issue the order he did, it must be found in some provision of the Constitution. And it is not claimed that express constitutional language grants this power to the President.

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Source Analysis Underline the details on this page about the Taft-Hartley Act.

Explain the implications Congress’s failure to pass the TaftHartley Act on the administration’s actions.

AP U.S. Government and Politics

The contention is that presidential power should be implied from the aggregate of his powers under the Constitution. Particular reliance is placed on provisions in Article II which say that “The executive Power shall be vested in a President . . .”; that “he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”, and that he “shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.”

Analytical Reading Activities

Source Analysis Underline where the government asserted that there are implied powers that would authorize the seizure of the steel mills.

Source Analysis The order cannot properly be sustained as an exercise of the President’s military power as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. The Government attempts to do so by citing a number of cases upholding broad powers in military commanders engaged in day-to-day fighting in a theater of war. Such cases need not concern us here. Even though “theater of war” be an expanding concept, we cannot with faithfulness to our constitutional system hold that the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces has the ultimate power as such to take possession of private property in order to keep labor disputes from stopping production. This is a job for the Nation’s lawmakers, not for its military authorities.

Explain the significance of Truman’s belief that the steel mills were vital for success in the Korean War.

Nor can the seizure order be sustained because of the several constitutional provisions that grant executive power to the President.

In the framework of our Constitution, the President’s power to see that the laws are faithfully executed refutes the idea that he is to be a lawmaker. The Constitution limits his functions in the lawmaking process to the recommending of laws he thinks wise and the vetoing of laws he thinks bad.

And the Constitution is neither silent nor equivocal about who shall make laws which the President is to execute. The first section of the first article says that “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.” …After granting many powers to the Congress, Article I goes on to provide that Congress may “make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

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Check Your Understanding Why does the Court reject the claim that Truman could seize the mills under his authority as Commander in Chief?

AP U.S. Government and Politics

Analytical Reading Activities

The President’s order does not direct that a congressional policy be executed in a manner prescribed by Congress — it directs that a presidential policy be executed in a manner prescribed by the President. …

Connect to Content

The power of Congress to adopt such public policies as those proclaimed by the order is beyond question. It can authorize the taking of private property for public use. It can make laws regulating the relationships between employers and employees, prescribing rules designed to settle labor disputes, and fixing wages and working conditions in certain fields of our economy. The Constitution does not subject this lawmaking power of Congress to presidential or military supervision or control.

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In the space below the first paragraph, explain why the president cannot direct that a “presidential policy be executed in a manner prescribed by the President.” Who has the authority to create this kind of policy?

List the powers Congress has related to this issue, as outlined in the majority opinion.

1. 2. 3.

It is said that other Presidents, without congressional authority, have taken possession of private business enterprises in order to ...