Saturday, September 06, 2025
The Unitary Executive and the Vice President
Suppose Congress enacted a statute that delegated certain powers to the Vice President. The President doesn’t like how the Vice President is exercising those powers. The Vice President tells the President to pound sand, adding “You can’t fire me.”
How are we supposed to think about this in the context of the unitary executive theory? On the one hand, the Vice President is elected. This is not some agency or unaccountable civil servant making decisions. On the other hand, the Vice President is not legally accountable to the President. To be sure, the President can make the Vice President’s life really unpleasant, but that’s a far cry from the President’s control over the Cabinet. Worse still, a rogue Vice-President could plot to use the 25th Amendment to oust the President.
Posted by Gerard Magliocca on September 6, 2025 at 10:24 AM | Permalink
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