I thought of this blog post idea as an offshoot of the argument for the constitution. Public indoctrination centers and popular culture have put this notion of constitution controlling government and allowing rights since the constitution was created. This post will not set out to argue that the constitution has failed to do either of things. Plus the misguided nature of “rights” is too broad for this particular topic. Rather than try to argue the constitution is an object failure, I will show you where the weaknesses are. One of the best ways to show is by using examples of Presidential overruns and exploits of the constitution.
This will be a multi-post series as I have 8 different presidents with unique situations that exploit the constitution making it a useless piece of paper. We’ll take 4 here and 4 next week. Also I have another idea where I explain how the Supreme Court has probably done the most to destroy any credibility of the constitution that was left. Lets save this idea for the future. So the four presidents, we’ll go over in chronological order are Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. You probably recognize all these names. You may even know where I’m going with some of these guys. I’m going to focus very specifically on the situation that allowed exploit of the constitution and what exactly it means for the constitution going forward.
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson is often known sometimes mistakenly as one of the more libertarian presidents. But what isn’t often pointed out is Jefferson crafty interpretation of the constitution. Especially in regards to manifest destiny. To that end, Jefferson saw a good deal with the French for the Louisiana territory. In 1803, Jefferson made the purchase for 15 million dollars. This may seem like a harmless transaction to the average person. But if you look deeper, the constitution doesn’t explicitly allow the President to purchase land. Jefferson knew this and found a work around.
The government in the US was set up by the constitution in a checks and balances. The problem that Jefferson had was that congress holds the power over the money. Jefferson in the executive branch holds power over foreign policy. In order to get the money to make the purchase, Jefferson crafted a treaty that had to be ratified by congress. In the treaty, it contained the money for France. To recap, Jefferson exploited a loophole that allow him to make congress approve money for the purchase from France, despite there being no constitutional instruction or precedent. Jefferson’s decision was actually never questioned by the Supreme Court. In fairness to him, the actions he took never broke any constitutional decrees.
Abraham Lincoln
This next president will make Jefferson seem kind of tame in comparison. Although both men are considered to be brilliant minds among the presidents. Abraham Lincoln is probably most famous for his alleged freeing of the slaves. His presidency is dominated by the civil war. War time gives Presidents some interesting angles to manipulate power. Some of Lincoln’s lesser known, not so good actions come at the cost of the constitution. Lincoln was previously a lawyer before his time as President. I think that’s why Lincoln holds the most intricate intrusion of constitutional law.
I suppose we should just start with the egregious offense which would obvious the suspension of habeas corpus. In America, the justice system was set up under the belief that every citizen has a right to due process and a fair trial by a jury of your peers. Lincoln decided that this notion was overridden by the need to eliminate and silence his enemies and confederate spies. Habeas corpus is latin for “You shall have the body”, in a legal proceeding, its when the accused goes to the courtroom to hear what they have been charged with. To put simply, Lincoln suspended the right of knowing why you were arrested in the first place. It might seem like a small detail in the grand scheme of things, but when you realize that Lincoln targeted his political opponents and journalists, you can see the problem. Lincoln literally silenced his enemies.
Lincoln didn’t stop there with overriding constitutional rights. In order to wage the civil war, he used an act passed in 1807 called the insurrection act. You can read more about that here and here. But basically this act allowed Lincoln to send federal troops wherever necessary without the permission of a governor. You’ll be interested to know that Thomas Jefferson created this law. (Jefferson used it against Aaron Burr after he killed Hamilton in a duel) As far as I can tell, the Supreme Court has not heard a case on it. It amounts to basically a martial law act. To date, I believe that Abraham Lincoln was the only one to use to wage actual war on citizens.
The changes in the way government was run under Abraham Lincoln actually jumpstarted what see today. Lincoln’s firm squashing of political opponents and journalists really polarized the partisan nature of American politics. The way that Lincoln waged the war by contracting out the making of uniforms and guns to manufacturers was the beginning of an organized military industrial complex. The fact is that Lincoln created a lot of his power out of thin air. Just like Jefferson found crafty loopholes, Lincoln also found ways to trampled the constitution. Unfortunately it gets worse.
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson is often considered both of the best and worst presidents depending on who you ask. His actions didn’t have such an immediate effect like Jefferson and Lincoln’s. Wilson built a few institutions that today are renegade in their following of the constitution. Both of these institutions are technically outside the purview of constitutional authority. But I believe that both also exploit the rights under the constitutional of the average citizen. If you haven’t guessed yet, its the United Nations and Federal Reserve Bank. Lets take one at a time.
The United Nations was a concept created by Wilson, first called the 14 points which he laid out in a speech. The idea was rebuffed by nearly all the major powers. Wilson’s intentions may have been good to prevent future conflicts. (World War 1 had just ended) At first, the US actually didn’t join the League of Nations which lasted until World War 2. The problem with the United Nations as it stands today is that it mimics a very weak one-world government. The UN has an army of “peacekeepers” that rarely keep any peace. Its usefulness is questionable at best. At best it provides a medium for countries to diplomatically solve their issues. At worst, it just leads to more tension and wars. One particular irony that is often overlooked by everyone is that the permanent security council positions are held by countries like China and Russia. In recent years, these two countries seem to behave in a less than model like way. Even if you ignore the “fake” election interruptions by Russia, they still invaded Crimea a few years ago. In China, the list of human rights violations just gets longer, not to mention the genocide of the Uyghurs. (highly recommend you research this, its horrifying.) The permanent members have the ability to block resolutions. So imagine the hypocritical nature of outrage over countries like Iran when two of the permanent members are guilty of similar or worse violations.
The federal reserve bank was created by Wilson in 1913. I won’t go into a full rant about how the federal reserve bank has devalued and caused more problems with economy due to the manipulation of the money. However, I will say this institution only has one connection to government. The president appoints the chair of the Fed. Otherwise, the federal reserve is completely free of any constitutional restriction. My point here is just this: What could go wrong when you give non-governmental institution the power to control money? Well just look around, you are living it. For the sake of word count, I’ll move on.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt holds the record for most terms as president. Once again, as I mentioned earlier with Lincoln that war time gives President’s interesting angles to manipulate power. FDR did exactly this, although he did serve four terms, there was no constitutional law about it. However, afterwards, congress did limit the president to only 2 terms. I think its worth mentioning even though its a closed loophole.
The other less obvious but more well known FDR actions is the New Deal. The New Deal was obviously a bundle of legislation that formed basically a stimulus in the Great Depression. While its not any specific constitutional intrusion, it does set precedents for more in the future. I think the biggest issue is not that FDR found a creative way to combat the depression but that his government funded and created it. There is also the creation of social security which now just robs people due its financial instability. I think FDR shows us that the constitution leaves quite a few gaping holes in terms of how the government can leverage its power.
This leads to my conclusion, (promise it won’t take long) These four presidents that I have pointed out specific things that either exploited loopholes or just flat out trampled constitution shows where the constitution lacks. The document was brilliantly written but the weaknesses are the same of that as Trump’s border wall. As I have shown here, any president can go around the wall (Constitution), climb over it, or bulldoze through it in the case of Lincoln. Stay tuned for part 2 where I’ll go over the other four: Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
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