100 Questions About Presidential Power

How much power does the President of the United States really have - and what are the limits?

100 Questions About Presidential Power: A Non-Partisan Guide to Understanding the Powers and the Limits of the Presidency explores one hundred questions about the authority of the American president and the constitutional limits on that authority.

Drawing on the Constitution, laws, Supreme Court decisions, historical precedents, and more than two centuries of presidential practice, the book examines how presidential power works - and what happens when that power is tested.

Organized in an accessible question-and-answer format, the book takes readers from the foundations of presidential authority through the President's relationship with Congress and the courts, emergency and wartime powers, accountability, elections, and the preservation of democratic government.

Can a President refuse to enforce a law passed by Congress?

Can a President send troops into American cities?

Can a President order the killing of an American citizen?

Can a President pardon himself?

Can a President postpone an election - or refuse to leave office after losing one?

Designed for readers without a legal background, the book provides concise, historically grounded explanations of the constitutional principles that govern the presidency. Along the way, it examines not only what the Constitution says, but how Congress, the courts, presidents, and history have shaped the powers and limits of the office.

Written by a veteran litigator and legal educator, 100 Questions About Presidential Power makes complex constitutional questions understandable without sacrificing their substance. It does not advocate for or against any President or political party. Instead, it provides readers with the constitutional and historical framework they need to consider these questions for themselves.

The result is an accessible, non-partisan guide to one of the most consequential questions in American government: What can a President do - and what can't a President do?