Dear Friend,
Although the Constitution invests the President with very specific, limited powers, the powers amassed by each successive president in recent years through the negligence of Congress and the courts—powers which add up to a toolbox of terror for an imperial ruler—empower whoever occupies the Oval Office to act as a dictator, above the law and beyond any real accountability.
These include the power to:
- kill American citizens without due process,
- carry out mass surveillance on Americans without probable cause,
- suspend laws during wartime,
- disregard laws with which he might disagree,
- conduct secret wars and convene secret courts,
- sidestep the legislatures and courts with executive orders and signing statements,
- direct the military to operate beyond the reach of the law, and
- operate a shadow government.
These presidential powers—acquired through the use of executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements and which can be activated by any sitting president—enable past, president and future presidents to operate above the law and beyond the reach of the Constitution.
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