Imperial Presidency

During the Civil War, Lincoln asserted that the president was entitled to assume “war power” and did not need specific constitutional authority to act at home or on foreign soil.

Roosevelt adopted the imperial president model after the Spanish-American War led the US to pursue more foreign policy objectives.

Congress granted Woodrow Wilson expanded war powers during World War 1

Roosevelt won huge victories as Congress ceded authority in fiscal policy, banking, housing, and agriculture during the Great Depression.

The Emergency Banking Act was presented during the "Bank Holiday." Roosevelt helped reopened banks that were solvent and assisted those that were not, ending the bank crisis. It gave the president the ability to control over the national finances and foreign exchange during an emergency.

During WW2, Roosevelt gained unprecedented emergency authority to dispense economic relief and to pan military actions.

The Supreme Court upheld Roosevelt's Executive Order, which led to curfews against members of a minority group

The Supreme Court applied the strict scrutiny standard to racial discrimination by the government and held that the government met that standard.

Since the Cold War, Congress has been working to decrease the president's power partly by blocking him from assembling permanent working majorities in either the House or Senate

Limited the power of the president (Truman at the time) to seize private property in the absence of either specifically enumerated authority

Gave Johnson de facto power to fight in Vietnam, but Congress still refused to accept the decision to send troops

Forced the president to obtain congressional blessing for extended military engagements

Established by the U.S. Senate and looked into the events surrounding Watergate. It was the most dramatic check on the president exercised by Congress when it began impeachment proceedings against Nixon

Gave Congress its own economic forecasts and deficit estimates, which sometimes challenged the White House.
The imperial presidency starts to decline around here.

Congress use investigations and inquiries to assert its power and undercut the president. It greatly diminished Reagan's public standing and ended his conservative revolution.

Gives the president increased powers to wiretap suspected terrorists without judicial supervision. Possibly violates the Fourth Amendment, which makes it very controversial

After the terrorist attacks, George W. Bush used an almost “top-down” management style that envisioned minimal consultation with Congress - viewed as an attempt to re-establish the imperial presidency that prevailed during WW2 and the Cold War

Authorized George W. Bush to use the military "as he determines to be necessary and appropriate" in order to "defend... the United States against... Iraq"

The Supreme Court ruled that the executive branch does not have the power to indefinitely hold citizen without basic due process protections enforceable through judicial review.