WU students lead discussion of power in U.S. government
The first Student Speak event of the year was held at the Stover Campus Center Friday, Sept. 9. Student Speak is a monthly event, which started four or five years ago, where students come together to talk and debate about current events in society.
Stover Scholars were responsible for the event this month, and the dialogue was led by junior Nick Cordova and sophomore Micah Stanko. The topic of the discussion was “Bush, Obama and Executive Power.” Roughly 50 students attended the event.
Cordova and Stanko started the discussion by asking students the question, “Have recent presidents gone too far in using executive power to circumvent Congress?”
Afterward, Cordova and Stanko gave the definition and a brief history of executive power, and they explained how the issue of presidents potentially overusing it is nonpartisan. Then, they spoke on the use of executive power by both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
After giving a brief history, Cordova and Stanko began the student conversation by asking, “Can the president ignore the constitutional limits of his power in order to save the nation?”
“The president does not have that authority. He is not given that authority by the constitution,” added another student at the event. “And Congress doesn’t and will never give him that power.”
Junior Luke Hutchison, who identifies as a libertarian, agreed with this statement and continued the conversation, mentioning how the use of executive orders in the past has been “unconstitutional [and] illegal.” He believes that the large number of executive orders that have been issued in the past proves that the power has been abused.
Intern at the Stover Center for Constitutional Studies and Moral Leadership Frido Firshing took the conversation in another direction, when he mentioned that “the reason the president has executive power is [for] times of crisis.”
“Maybe it’s a good thing to have this executive order in times of crisis…[so we] can act immediately,” added Firshing.
Later, sophomore Dan Kephart argued that there are two key problems.
“Congress isn’t carrying out its duties,” Kephart said. “It’s not stepping up to make the laws to give the president the decisions he needs in order to be able to act… And at the same time we have a president who is deserting the power of congress and stepping out of the sphere where he’s supposed to act, according to the constitution.”
The next question Cordova and Stanko asked was, “Is it time for a new order; for a new system; for a new day?”
“The general public does still hold the constitution in high regard,” said another student present at the event. “[Now] we have been better able to scrutinize whether acts are unconstitutional and we’re able to deal with those problems in a shorter time span… [because of] the media.”
The last question asked was, “Should we define the president’s ability to move in foreign affairs more specifically than the constitution does?”
“There does need to be a stronger check on what the president can do and how these executive orders can be used as it relates to foreign affairs,” said Hutchison.
Junior Sarah Flowers agreed with Hutchison.
“The system of checks and balances was put in place in our governmental system to avoid the usurping of power so one person or one group of people would not have more power than each other, so our democracy and our liberties would be kept intact,” said Flowers.
The next Student Speak event will take place Friday, Oct. 14, and the subject will revolve around the upcoming election.