Both Republicans and Democrats have voiced concerns over the past few decades about the expansion of presidential powers — some of it ceded by Congress looking for political cover, much of it a result of White House legal interpretations of constitutional gray areas. The balance of power now tilts in favor of the Oval Office, but since President Richard Nixon leaders have held themselves largely in check, respecting long-established informal rules and norms. Then came President Trump…In a new book, “After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency,” attorneys Bob Bauer ’73 and Jack L. Goldsmith, veterans of Democratic and Republican White Houses, respectively, propose what they say are long-overdue reforms to the Office of the President that can rein in future presidents who try to exploit the position for their political or personal benefit. Goldsmith, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, served as assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel during the George W. Bush administration. He writes frequently about national security, government, and politics, and is a founding editor of Lawfare. Bauer, a longtime legal adviser to President Barack Obama who is now advising the Biden campaign, is widely regarded as a leading authority on executive branch powers. He served as White House counsel from 2008 to 2011 and is now a professor of the practice and distinguished scholar in residence at NYU Law.

An op-ed by Jack Goldsmith: Long before Donald Trump became president it was widely believed that he would spark a “constitutional crisis” if elected. And during his term in office there were panicked claims that he was just on the verge of destroying the American constitutional order: when Mr Trump threatened to defy judicial orders related to the Muslim ban, and to fire or stop Special Counsel Robert Mueller; and when he made absolutist executive-power claims in defying congressional subpoenas for his tax returns and urged prosecution of his political enemies. In these and many other contexts, Mr Trump’s verbal assaults and threats, incessant norm-defiance and claims of absolute power provoked four years of vertiginous panic. Mr Trump was so discombobulating that relatively few noticed that these and many other worst-case scenarios never played out. Mr Trump has left enormous damage in his wake—to the psyche of many Americans, to many institutions of American democracy and to beaten-down citizens’ confidence in these institutions. There is much repair work to be done. Yet the most remarkable fact about his presidency is how well the American constitutional system stood up to and survived it. This was true, most importantly, in the recent presidential election. Hundreds of stories and reports warned about foreign hacking, domestic and foreign disinformation, violence, insecure voting machines, voter suppression and pandemic-related problems. Yet more Americans than ever (approximately 150m) voted for president. And the election “was the most secure in American history,” according to federal election infrastructure experts.