Handout A: The President as Enforcer of the Law

The President as Enforcer of the Law

Directions: Read carefully the sections of the Constitution below. Define each phrase and explain how it defines the President’s power to enforce the law.

1. Article I, Section 7 [I]f he approve he shall sign [a bill], but if not he shall return it….
2. Article II, Section 1 The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America…
3. Article II, Section 1 He shall take the following oath or affirmation:—“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
4. Article II, Section 2 The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States…
5. Article II, Section 3 He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed….
6. Article IV, Section 4 The United States… shall protect each of [the states] against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive… against domestic violence.
7. Article VI, Section 2 This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof… shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.