Mitchel A. Sollenberger and Mark J. Rozell have provided a valuable contribution to what is often called the public law approach to the presidency in their recent book, The President’s Czars: Undermining Congress and the Constitution. Their argument is clear from the title: “Czars offend the constitutionally based principles of separation of powers, checks and balances, and democratic accountability” (179). They provide an overview of the history of czars and conclude their book with a policy proposal that would eliminate them altogether. I will turn to their constitutional argument and the larger public law approach later, but here I lay out…
Czars in America
This next edition of Liberty Law Talk is a conversation with Mitchel Sollenberger and Mark Rozell on the use of ‘czars’ by American Presidents. Sollenberger and Rozell are authors of The President’s Czars: Undermining Congress and the Constitution. The conversation places this twentieth century presidential phenomenon in constitutional, political, and historical context. We focus on exactly what constitutes and defines a public official being labeled a czar. Of course, most importantly is the constitutional legerdemain engaged in by presidents who create and appoint czars, outside of the senate confirmation process, to exercise power in a manner that is accountable to…
