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COPYRIGHT, 1906

BY

EDWARD THOMPSON COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1918

BY

EDWARD THOMPSON COMPANY

All rights reserved

JAN 17 1919

LO

FEDERAL STATUTES ANNOTATED

SECOND EDITION

NOTES ON THE CONSTITUTION

ARTICLE II, SECTION 1

“ The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows."

Represented by heads of departments. The President, in the exercise of his executive power under the Constitution, may act through the head of the appropriate executive department. The heads of departments are his authorized assistants in the performance of his executive duties, and their official acts, promulgated in the regular course of business, are presumptively his acts.

Wilcox v. Jackson, (1839) 13 Pet. 498, 513, 10 U. S. (L. ed.) 264; Runkle v. U. S., (1887) 122 U. S. 557, 7 S. Ct. 1141, 30 U. S. (L. ed.) 1167. See also Wolsey v. Chapman, (1879) 101 U. S. 755, 25 U. S. (L. ed.) 915; U. S. v. Farden, (1878) 99 U. S. 10, 25 U. S. (L. ed.) 267; Confiscation Cases, (1873) 20 Wall. 92, 22 U. S. (L. ed.) 322; Williams v. U. S., (1843) 1 How. 297, 11 U. S. (L. ed.) 135; U. S. v. Eliason, (1842) 16 Pet. 291, 10 U. S. (L. ed.) 968; Relation of President to Executive Departments, (1863) 10 Op. Atty.-Gen.

527.

Where the heads of departments are the political or confidential agents of the executive, merely to execute the will of the President, or rather to act in cases in which the executive possesses a constitutional or legal discretion, their acts are only politically examinable. But where a specific duty is assigned by law, and individual rights depend upon the performance of that duty, it is equally clear that the individual who considers himself injured has a right to resort to the laws of his country for a remedy. Marbury v. Madison, (1803) 1 Cranch (U. S.) 165, wherein the court, per Mar

shall, C. J., said: "By the Constitution of the United States, the President is invested with certain important political powers, in the exercise of which he is to use his own discretion, and is accountable only to his country in his political character and to his own conscience. To aid him in the performance of these duties, he is authorized to appoint certain officers, who act by his authority, and in conformity with his orders. In such cases, their acts are his acts; and whatever opinion may be entertained of the manner in which executive discretion may be used, still there exists, and can exist, no power to control that discretion. The subjects are political. They respect the nation, not individual rights, and being intrusted to the executive, the decision of the executive is conclusive. The application of this remark will be perceived by adverting to the Act of Congress for establishing the department of foreign affairs. This officer, as his duties were prescribed by that Act, is to conform precisely to the will of the President. He is the mere organ by whom that will is communicated. The acts of such an officer, as an officer, can never be examinable by the courts. But when the legislature proceeds to impose on that officer

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