Free government requires that the executive act only under law made by parliamentary deliberation

Evidence

The essence of our free Government is “leave to live by no man’s leave, underneath the law” -to be governed by those impersonal forces which we call law. Our Government is fashioned to fulfill this concept so far as humanly possible. The Executive, except for recommendation and veto, has no legislative power. The executive action we have here originates in the individual will of the President and represents an exercise of authority without law. No one, perhaps not even the President, knows the limits of the power he may seek to exert in this instance and the parties affected cannot learn the limit of their rights. We do not know today what powers over labor or property would be claimed to flow from Government possession if we should legalize it, what rights to compensation would be claimed or recognized, or on what contingency it would end. With all its defects, delays and inconveniences, men have discovered no technique for long preserving free government except that the Executive be under the law, and that the law be made by parliamentary deliberations. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 2872

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Jackson grounds the case in a definition of free government as governance by impersonal law rather than individual will — a dense normative-institutional claim.
• XREF: Connects to the polyad thread equating law with impersonal rule and to Volume 1-3’s institutions material as reference. — connects to: Courts cannot preserve congressional power that Congress fails to use — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2870; The party system gives presidents extraconstitutional control over other branches — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2868; Unsanctioned executive power, if it exists, knows no legal limits — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2863 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Legislative power is inherently limited to the common good and standing law #expands (0.85) — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 158
• Political power is lawmaking backed by force and limited to the public good #qualifies (0.80) — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 7
• Executive discretion beyond statute is justified by law’s unavoidable incompleteness #qualifies (0.80) — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 197
• Executive confidence alone is power enough to move ideas into law #contradicts (0.80) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 614
• An executive order needs only one decision-maker rather than congressional majority. #contradicts (0.80)
• Rule of law in economics restricts the state to purely formal legislation #qualifies (0.75) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 923
• A ruling party exercises hegemonic power without formal juridical rule #contradicts (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 944
• A law binds only because sovereign will chose to be bound by it #qualifies (0.70) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 197