The 2024 Executive Power Survey – Vivek Ramaswamy

Unitary Executive

Lawyers in the Reagan-era Justice Department developed the so-called unitary executive theory, an expansive interpretation of presidential power that aims to centralize greater control over the government in the White House. Under stronger versions of this vision, Congress cannot fracture the president’s control of federal executive power, such as by vesting the power to make certain decisions in an agency head even if the president orders the agency to make a different decision, or by limiting a president’s ability to enforce his desires by removing any executive branch official — including the heads of “independent” agencies — at will.

In line with this vision, shortly before the 2020 election, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order that sought (in an interpretation of statutory authority) to strip Civil Service protections from tens of thousands of career federal employees by reclassifying them as “Schedule F,” which would allow a president to fire or reassign them at will. But President Biden rescinded this order before it was legally tested. The Trump team also weighed an executive order that would require independent agencies, which Congress has insulated from presidential supervision, to submit new regulations and guidance practices to the White House for approval before issuing them.

Is it constitutional for Congress to enact laws constraining a president’s ability to remove officials at will? Is it constitutional for Congress to limit the president’s ability to direct the actions of a government agency like the Federal Reserve? Would you seek to curtail Civil Service protections and the independence of regulatory agencies?