Author name: Ted

    The following constitutional and statutory authorities are respectfully submitted for review by the President, the White House Counsel, the Attorney General, and other appropriate executive officials in determining the Executive Branch’s continuing responsibilities under the Reconstruction settlement. Constitutional Authorities Article II of the Constitution of the United States Presidential Oath of Office Executive …

APPENDIX A PRINCIPAL CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY AUTHORITIES FOR EXECUTIVE REVIEW Read More »

Every generation inherits both the achievements and the unfinished responsibilities of those who came before. The Reconstruction generation preserved the Union, abolished slavery, adopted new constitutional guarantees, and enacted laws intended to secure a lasting constitutional settlement. Those enactments remain among the most consequential in the Nation’s history. This memorandum respectfully asks whether the Executive …

X. CONCLUSION — A CONSTITUTIONAL OPPORTUNITY Read More »

This memorandum respectfully recommends that the President consider the following actions, all within the constitutional responsibilities of the Executive Branch: Direct a Constitutional Review. Instruct the White House Counsel and the Attorney General to conduct a comprehensive review of the Executive Branch’s continuing responsibilities under the Reconstruction Constitution and existing Reconstruction statutes. Examine Existing Authorities. …

IX. RECOMMENDED PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS Read More »

  The constitutional question presented by this memorandum is not what previous generations did or failed to do. It is what responsibilities presently belong to the Office of the President. Article II does not require the President to preserve only those portions of the Constitution that are free from controversy. It requires him to preserve, …

VIII. THE PRESIDENT’S PRESENT CONSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITY Read More »

  Among the historical materials appropriate for executive review are President Andrew Johnson’s veto messages concerning the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and related Reconstruction legislation. Although Congress rejected President Johnson’s constitutional conclusions by overriding his veto, his messages remain among the most significant contemporaneous executive records describing the legislation, the constitutional issues then under …

VII. PRESIDENT JOHNSON’S VETO MESSAGES AS CONTEMPORANEOUS EXECUTIVE RECORDS Read More »

VI. THE SEQUENCE OF RECONSTRUCTION MATTERS A careful executive review should examine the Reconstruction settlement in the order it was created. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 preceded the Fourteenth Amendment. It was enacted by Congress, vetoed by President Andrew Johnson, enacted over that veto, and became federal law before the ratification of the Fourteenth …

VI. THE SEQUENCE OF RECONSTRUCTION MATTERS Read More »

  V. THE EXISTING RECONSTRUCTION AUTHORITIES The constitutional inquiry presented by this memorandum does not begin with judicial decisions. It begins with the Constitution and the Acts of Congress enacted to implement it. Among the principal authorities appropriate for executive review are: The Emancipation Proclamation, as a wartime executive measure preserving the Union and initiating …

V. THE EXISTING RECONSTRUCTION AUTHORITIES Read More »

IV. IDENTIFYING THE CONSTITUTIONAL PURPOSE OF RECONSTRUCTION Faithful execution of the law begins with faithful understanding of the law. The Reconstruction enactments were adopted in response to a specific constitutional crisis following the Civil War. Like all federal legislation, they possessed an identifiable purpose, addressed identifiable conditions, and imposed identifiable governmental responsibilities. Accordingly, before the …

IV. IDENTIFYING THE CONSTITUTIONAL PURPOSE OF RECONSTRUCTION Read More »

  Reconstruction was more than a period in American history. It was the constitutional remedy adopted by the Nation to preserve the Union after the Civil War and to secure the constitutional settlement that followed. Congress did not merely declare new principles. It enacted laws, established federal duties, assigned executive responsibilities, and created mechanisms to …

III. RECONSTRUCTION WAS A CONSTITUTIONAL REMEDY, NOT MERELY A HISTORICAL EVENT Read More »

    The Civil War preserved the Union. Reconstruction was intended to preserve the Constitution. Following the abolition of slavery, Congress and the Nation undertook an unprecedented constitutional effort to restore the Union, establish national citizenship under federal law, secure equal civil rights, and provide legal protections for those whom the Reconstruction Acts were enacted …

II. THE UNFINISHED WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION Read More »