Academic

Yoo on Andrew Jackson

By Lawrence Solum

John C. Yoo (University of California at Berkeley School of Law) has posted Andrew Jackson and Presidential Power on SSRN. Here is a taste:

While Andrew Jackson laid the foundations for what we can begin to recognize as the modern presidency, he would have been out of place in the modern world. He fought duels, owned slaves, and killed Indians (as well as British spies). He carried a lifelong hatred of Great Britain because, as a captured boy soldier during the Revolutionary War, he was struck in the face with a sword for refusing to clean a British officer?s boots. During the War of 1812, he won a resounding victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans. During the peace, Jackson invaded and occupied Spanish Florida without clear orders. His views on slavery and on Indians would be deemed more than just politically incorrect today. When he lost the election of 1824 despite winning the most votes, Jackson did not graciously withdraw but spent the next four years attacking the ?corrupt bargain? that had thrown the Presidency to John Quincy Adams.

Upon winning the election of 1828, Jackson embarked on a transformation of the political system and the Presidency. He sought to advance the cause of democracy, and made an expanded executive power his tool in that great project. To Jackson, democracy meant that the will of the majority should prevail, regardless of existing governmental and social arrangements. Even Jefferson had not gone that far. The Framers designed a government to check and balance majority rule with the Senate, the Electoral College, and an independent judiciary. Jackson followed a different star. ?[T]he first principle of our system,? Jackson declared in his State of the Union Address, is ?that the majority is to govern.?2 He called for a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College because ?[t]o the people belongs the right of electing their Chief Magistrate.?3 The more elected representatives there were, he observed, the more likely the popular will would be frustrated.4 Jackson remains one of the greatest Presidents because he reconstructed the office into the direct representative of the American people.

Note--the abstract posted on SSRN belongs to a different paper.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on July 18, 2008 (boomark / email).