Legal Commentary

Barack Obama?s ?Centrism and Constitutionalism?

By David Bernstein

I was reading the Harvard University Press?s marketing summary of Yale Law School professor Bruce Ackerman?s new book, The Decline and Fall of the American Republic. It starts, ?Bruce Ackerman shows how the institutional dynamics of the last half-century have transformed the American presidency into a potential platform for political extremism and lawlessness. Watergate, Iran-Contra, and the War on Terror are only symptoms of deeper pathologies,? and continues in the same vein.

I thought to myself, this sounds like a book Ackerman started writing during the Bush Administration, that would now seem somewhat passe both to him and his intended audience now that Barack Obama is president. Sure enough, Harvard University Press?s marketing department recognized the problem. The summary concludes: ?Americans should not suppose that Barack Obama?s centrism and constitutionalism will typify the presidencies of the twenty-first century. We should seize the present opportunity to confront deeper institutional pathologies before it is too late.?

Translation: Many of us aren?t concerned about the possibility of the president abusing his power so long as a good liberal Democrat like Barack Obama is in power, he?d never do anything lawless [editorial commentary: I wouldn?t ask GM bondholders about that], nor would like-minded presidents. But just remember, some day a Republican will once again be president, and then all Hell will break loose once again.

UPDATE: While I haven?t read Ackerman?s book, I agree with the general proposition that too much power concentrated in the executive is dangerous. I just doubt that it?s inherently more dangerous in the hands of Republican presidents than in the hands of Democrats. And, in fairness to Ackerman (though not to whoever wrote the text for HUP), he recently wrote an op-ed criticizing Obama for his backdoor appointment of Elizabeth Warren.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on September 23, 2010 (boomark / email).