Lesson 24: How Are National Laws Administered in the American Constitutional System?
What is the role of executive departments? (Video)
The role of executive departments; Interstate Commerce Commission; Executive Office of the President; the role of independent agencies; executive departments' and independent agencies' possession of executive, legislative, and judicial powers; quasi-legislative powers; presidential appointments; influences on executive departments and agencies; quasi-judicial powers; Administrative Procedure Act of 1946; Federal Register; growth of administrative departments and agencies; Congressional oversight.
Student Questions: Unit 4, Lesson 24, Sections 1-2 (pdf download)
How are administrative agencies staffed? (Video)
Staffing of administrative departments and agencies; federal civil service; issue of corruption; Congressional control; insulation from politics; political appointments to administrative departments and independent agencies; the power of Congress versus the power of the president over administrative agencies and departments; Supreme Court doctrine of deference to administrative departments and agencies; issue of separation of powers; meaning of bureaucracy.
Susan Webb Yackee on Bureaucracy and Rule-Making (Video)
Susan Yackee (University of Wisconsin, Madison) discusses bureaucratic rule-making: what the process is, who participates, and why it matters.
Mukasey: Waterboarding is Torture if It (Video)
Mike Mukasey Attorney General Senate Confirmation Hearing, regarding the topics of water boarding and torture.
Bureaucracy: A Controversial Necessity (Video)
A video describing the American bureaucracy. From Annenberg Media's Learner.org website. Registration and log-in required.
Presidents: James Garfield (Video)
A video about President Garfield and his assassination by the History Channel.
Presidents: Grover Cleveland (Video)
A video about President Cleveland by the History Channel.
Elrod v. Burns (1976) (Audio)
The opinion announcement of the case.
Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois (1990) (Audio)
The oral argument of the case.
