Contribution to Book
Executive Immunity for the Post-Clinton Presidency
The Presidency and the Law: The Clinton Legacy
(2002)
Abstract
Political scandals have always demonstrated the capacity of our executive officials for self-inflicted injuries, and the Clinton administration was no exception. Unilateral warmaking, claims of executive privilege and immunity, and last-minute pardons all tested the limits of presidential power, while the excesses of the Special Prosecutor cast doubts on available remedies. For eight years, Republicans and Democrats engaged in guerrilla warfare aimed at destroying the careers and lives of their adversaries while tests of presidential power were resolved by the courts, resulting in a reshaping of the scope and power of the presidency itself.
This book examines the many controversial and important battles that led to the shrinking of the presidency under the law during the Clinton administration. Located at the intersection of law and politics, it helps readers understand the dramatic changes that took place in the relationship of presidential power to the law during the Clinton years and shows how one president's actions—and congressional and legal reactions to them—have altered presidential prerogatives in ways that his successors cannot ignore.
Keywords
- Executive immunity,
- Clinton Administration,
- Executive power
Disciplines
Publication Date
September 28, 2002
Editor
David Gray Adler, Michael A. Genovese
Publisher
University Press of Kansas.
ISBN
978-0-7006-1194-2
Citation Information
Evan Gerstmann and Christopher Shortell. “Executive Immunity for the Post-Clinton Presidency.”
In Michael Genovese and David Adler, eds., The Presidency and the Law: The Clinton Legacy. 2002. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.