The President and the Courts

How do presidents try to influence the courts? Once way is through legal arguments. Note the role of the Solicitor General.

Supreme Court nominations can be crucial.

• See the story behind Justice Fortas.
• See the story behind Justice O'Connor.
  Now President Obama may get to shape the Court:
  
  
  
  (With this video, start at about 2:40)
  
  
  The Court can check the executive:
  
  

The Bubble

President-elect Obama is learning that every president works within a "bubble."

The New York Times explains why he must soon go offline:

Sorry, Mr. President. Please surrender your BlackBerry.

Those are seven words President-elect Barack Obama is dreading but expecting to hear, friends and advisers say, when he takes office in 65 days.

For years, like legions of other professionals, Mr. Obama has been all but addicted to his BlackBerry. The device has rarely been far from his side — on most days, it was fastened to his belt — to provide a singular conduit to the outside world as the bubble around him grew tighter and tighter throughout his campaign. “How about that?” Mr. Obama replied to a friend’s congratulatory e-mail message on the night of his victory.

But before he arrives at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.

Click here for the rest of the story.

His everyday life is changing. He cannot even get a haircut in the same way as the rest of us.

But when he wanted a trim this week, the Secret Service took one look at the shop’s large plate-glass windows and the gawking tourists eager for a glimpse of the president-elect and the plan quickly changed. If Mr. Obama could no longer
come to the barber, the barber would come to him and cut his hair at a friend’s
apartment.

Click here for the rest of the story.

Remember What I Said About Being Careful?

The 2008 Plum Book of administration jobs is now out.

From the New York Times:

Want a top job in the Obama administration? Only pack rats need apply, preferably those not packing controversy.

A seven-page questionnaire being sent by the office of President-elect Barack Obama to those seeking cabinet and other high-ranking posts may be the most extensive — some say invasive — application ever.

The questionnaire includes 63 requests for personal and professional records, some covering applicants’ spouses and grown children as well, that are forcing job-seekers to rummage from basements to attics, in shoe boxes, diaries and computer archives to document both their achievements and missteps.

Only the smallest details are excluded; traffic tickets carrying fines of less than $50 need not be reported, the application says. Applicants are asked whether they or anyone in their family owns a gun. They must include any e-mail that might embarrass the president-elect, along with any blog posts and links to their Facebook pages. The application also asks applicants to “please list all aliases or ‘handles’ you have used to communicate on the Internet.”

(Click here for the rest of the article.)

Click here to see a pdf of the questionnaire.

Begich now leads Stevens

Relating to how the Congress will interact with Obama, it looks increasingly likely that the Senate will have at least 58 Democrats + Independents. The two unknowns in this scenario are Minnesota, which is heading into a recount and Georgia, which is going to be a runoff.

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich now leads Senator Ted Stevens in the Alaskan Senate Race by a slim three votes, but if the remaining ballots break as decisively as the ballots counted today (where Begich won approximately 53.7% of the major party vote), then the election could be decided without a recount, although the rules for a recount are somewhat odd, and can be called for by the losing candidate with a $10,000 deposit.

There will be another ballot drop tonight of about 10,000 votes, and then the remaining 35,000 must be counted before next Wednesday, Nov. 19th.

Suggestions/Cabinet/Transition

Thanks for your suggestions. I cannot respond to all of them in this posting, but here are a couple of key points:

• Sample Papers. Some wanted model papers. If you want examples of good student writing, see the links at: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/govt/jpitney/writing.htm.
• Final Exam. I shall hand out a practice final before the end of the semester. Also I encourage you to meet and organize a study guide. I do not grade on a curve, so you can only gain by cooperating with one another.

As for the vice presidency and the 25th Amendment ....

Click here for information on the Clinton cabinet and here for the Bush (43) cabinet.

Consider the criteria in Pika (p. 263):

• Political experience;
• Clientele or ethnic identification;
• Technical expertise;

Also remember pretenure friendship.

Here is a long list of independent agencies.

Here is information and rules and executive orders.

Hoax, and Cool Story for Electoral College Junkies!

1. Remember what I said about not automatically believing what you read on the Internet? Read on ....

2. From CQ Politics:

The latest Election Day contest to be decided delivered one of the smallest prizes: President-elect Barack Obama has, by a narrow margin, claimed the one electoral vote accorded to the winner of the popular vote in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional
District.
...

Nebraska is one of just two states — Maine is the other — that does not automatically award all of its electoral votes to the statewide winner. Each state accords two votes to the statewide winner, and one vote apiece to the winner in each of the state’s congressional districts. Obama’s win for one of Nebraska’s five electoral votes is, however, the first time there has been a split decision. And it occurred because of Obama’s strategy of campaigning heavily in places his campaign viewed as winnable, even though many had been Republican presidential strongholds for years.

Click here for the full story.

The Real West Wing

West Wing map

White House tours

Executive Office of the President

White House salaries

All presidents worry about staff leaks. LBJ did. Even the Bartlet White House did.