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Executive Power

New Brennan Center Report on Curbing Executive Power

Many of their recommendations are well-taken.

Ilya Somin | 10.30.2026 3:02 PM

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The NYU Brennan Center for Justice recently published a valuable report entitled "Seven Solutions to Rein In Abuses of Executive Power." The Brennan Center is well to the left of me. But I agree with the vast majority of their recommendations here. We do indeed have an overgrown executive, and it needs to be pared back. I particularly agree with the excellent section on constraining emergency powers:

With just a signature, presidents can declare a national emergency and unlock special powers contained in more than 130 statutory provisions. These run the gamut from the seemingly trivial to the near-dictatorial, including powers to shut down or take over communications infrastructure, freeze Americans' bank accounts, and control domestic transportation. They are intended for sudden, fast-moving crises that Congress can't address quickly or flexibly enough. But presidents of both parties have stretched the meaning of "emergency" far beyond reason, enabling them to draw from a growing stockpile of statutory authorities with few real safeguards.

There are currently 51 active states of emergency, and the longest-running has lasted 47 years.10 Any emergency that persists for generations is, by definition, not an emergency; it's a problem that can be addressed through ordinary lawmaking. Yet presidents have used emergency powers to bypass Congress and unilaterally advance their policy goals.11

The National........

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