ABSTRACT
The theory of the unitary executive was not explicitly named or consciously promoted until the 1980s, but there were many earlier precedents that some observers claim reflect a commitment to the idea of the unitary executive. Indeed, some scholars argue that every single president has in some way supported what would now be called the unitary executive theory. This chapter explores important early unitary actions by George Washington and John Adams. It also discusses unitarian controversies through the nineteenth century, especially under Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson. And it covers unitarian actions and court cases in the twentieth century from Teddy Roosevelt through Jimmy Carter, with particular attention to FDR and Richard Nixon, whose efforts to enhance presidential control via administration presaged more explicitly unitarian actions later in the twentieth century. This chapter thus covers conflicts regarding the president’s removal power, the management of executive personnel and their actions, control of the bureaucracy and regulation, assuming powers not in the Constitution, and other matters. By reviewing these proto-unitarian actions over nearly two centuries, this chapter demonstrates that the more explicitly unitary controversies of the Reagan years built upon earlier precedents.
