President George W. Bush and Executive Emergency Power: A Hyper Approach to the Unitary Executive Theory

In this article, I examine the theory of executive emergency power, proffered by George W. Bush, following the attacks of September 11, 2001. In particular, I examine the administrations interpretation of the Unitary Executive Theory and the misguided interpretation of emergency power proffered by former Asst. Attorney General John Yoo. I analyze primary source documents from the administration, including Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memos, Presidential Signing Statements, and email exchanges between the officers of the executive branch. Further, I analyze principle Federalist Papers, mostly those of Alexander Hamilton to contest the Bush Administration’s conclusions regarding the Unitary Executive Theory. The findings indicate that the Bush Administration violated the Constitution, created a new Unitary Executive Theory, and moreover, devised a new interpretation of presidential emergency power. The implications from the research are very strikingly clear that the Bush Administration created not just an imperial presidency during the crisis, but a whole new presidency not bound by the law, or the Constitution.