HONOR 240 - Power in U.S. Government: Unchecked and Unbalanced?

A woman asked Ben Franklin as he left the Constitutional Convention what form of government the U.S. would have. He replied, "A republic, if you can keep it." This course will examine the transformations of the U.S. constitutional republic and what can be done to "keep" it. Included will be an examination of core ethical issues and examples of past remedies that may serve as models for the present. Utilizing a wide variety of court cases, articles, books, video clips, and films, issues core to U.S. governance and relations with other nations will be explored, including the power to make war; the engagement in wars of aggression; the role of the judiciary in restraining executive branch conduct; military commissions; the history of Congress's responses to executive branch abuses; impeachment; surveillance of U.S. residents; deprivations of the writ of habeas corpus; torture; treaty obligations; assassination of U.S. citizens; drone killings; presidential emergency powers; continuity-of-government plans; the PATRIOT Act; domestic policing by military troops; and indefinite imprisonment of people, including U.S. citizens, without charges, trial, legal assistance, or a hearing before an independent tribunal.