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 the transition from slavery to freedom.
- The Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery and authorizing congressional enforcement.
- The Civil Rights Act of 1866, establishing national civil rights and assigning federal enforcement responsibilities.
- The Fourteenth Amendment, constitutionalizing key protections adopted during Reconstruction.
- The Fifteenth Amendment, protecting political participation through the right to vote.
- The Enforcement Acts and related Reconstruction legislation, providing federal mechanisms to secure the constitutional settlement following the Civil War.
These enactments should not be viewed as isolated measures. They were adopted as components of a comprehensive constitutional program intended to restore the Union, secure the rule of law, and establish lasting constitutional protections following the Civil War.
Accordingly, the Executive Branch should examine these authorities as an integrated constitutional framework rather than as disconnected historical enactments.
That review should determine:
- Which executive duties remain in force.
- Which statutory authorities continue to authorize executive action.
- Whether existing federal law provides lawful means to address responsibilities that have never been fully discharged.
- Whether additional administrative coordination is appropriate to ensure faithful execution of those laws.
This memorandum respectfully submits that such a review falls squarely within the President’s constitutional obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
The objective is neither to expand executive power nor to diminish the authority of the other branches. It is to ensure that existing constitutional and statutory duties are understood and administered according to law.