The Constitution clearly states that the president "shall nominate,
and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall
appoint" individuals to positions in the executive and judicial
branches; yet the process may sometimes seem murky. While much has
been written about the confirmation phase of those appointments,
far less attention has been paid to the pre-nomination
process--until now.
In this groundbreaking book, Mitchel Sollenberger takes readers
behind the scenes to explain what happens before presidents
publicly announce their nominees. A comprehensive history of this
process, his book shows how political practice has shaped the use
of a power that the Constitution declared must be shared by the
executive and legislative branches.
Drawing on unpublished letters and papers of presidents,
senators, and other public figures, Sollenberger unravels the way
this struggle has been viewed and resolved from George Washington's
day to the present. He reveals the extent to which the political
process has shaped the outcomes of particular appointments and how
these outcomes have reflected the fundamental principle of shared
power. Along the way, he sheds new light on issues related to
express and implied power, the validity of the unitary executive
model, the tension between politics and professionalism, and the
limits of originalism and textualism in interpreting the
appointment process.
Sollenberger documents how the president and Senate have worked
with or against each other in managing the pre-nomination process,
examining both the tradition of the president's consulting with
senators and the Senate's numerous ways of killing a nomination. He
also shows how the two branches have often sought compromise rather
than test public patience, yet another testament to the genius of
our system of checks and balances. And while past observers of the
process have looked most closely at judicial appointments,
Sollenberger casts a much wider net, while critiquing the "spoils
era," civil service reform, and implications of the Pendleton Act
before concluding with George W. Bush and his appointment of
Michael Brown to FEMA.
The first major study of the pre-nomination phase, Sollenberger's
work asks important questions about our constitutional balance of
powers and shows us how the appointments clause should ideally
operate in a republican form of government.
General
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