Seeking Baselines for Negative Authority: Constitutional and Rule-of-Law Arguments Over Nonenforcement and Waiver
43 Pages Posted: 28 Mar 2016 Last revised: 3 May 2016
Date Written: May 2, 2016
Abstract
Recent controversies have called attention to the potential significance of negative executive authority — the authority to limit or undo what Congress has done through nonenforcement or waiver. This symposium essay reflects in several ways on constitutional and rule-of-law debates that have emerged regarding such authority. First, it defends the relevance of constitutional principles to baseline understandings of nonenforcement authority. Second, it identifies a deep tension in the rule of law’s implications for discretionary enforcement. Third, it defends statutorily conferred law-cancellation authority against constitutional challenges and rule-of-law objections. Finally, it proposes presumptive limits on authority to condition statutory waivers.
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