TRI - 6/21/2023 - Reddit Rant - Lawyers Confused About Constitutional Law

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/a-former-fbi-analyst-was-just-sentenced-to-prison-for-the-same-espionage-act-crimes-trump-is-charged-with-in-mar-a-lago-case/

Today’s silly article from Law & Crime draws parallels between a former intelligence analyst and a former president. Apparently this former intelligence analyst kept a bunch of secret documents at her home and was recently convicted of the same crime for which Trump was indicted. She was sentenced to four years for her crime.

The article explains that this is a closely parallel case and therefore a damaging precedent for Trump. Setting aside Trump saying something foolish and self-incriminating, these two cases are not at all parallel, because the people involved are not equivalent. The Constitution empowers the Executive branch with execution of the nation’s laws. The Executive branch is unique since this power is placed in a single individual. Since it’s not practical for one man to enforce all of the laws, the power of the chief executive is delegated to subordinate agencies and individuals. Those agencies act under the authority delegated to them from the chief executive.

Classification is a process developed for these agencies to ensure the security of sensitive government information. The power to restrict information through classification and declassification comes from the constitutional power granted to the President. The President has plenary power to classify and declassify information. To assert any other standard would be to attempt to hold the constitution source of legal authority as subordinate to an agency that derives its power from the very legal authority it is now trying to restrict.

Even if you make the argument that somehow the Legislative branch has authority to hem the President and his delegated agents in through passing legislation, I.e. the Espionage Act, you have only setup a conflict between two co-equal branches of government. Since neither Executive nor Legislative has a trump card over the other, should a conflict arise it is settled by the Supreme Court. Since the Supreme Court has set no precedent curtailing the President’s power to classify or declassify President Trump has a a strong constitutional argument that his actions were legally beyond the power of the legislature to curtail unless the Supreme Court says otherwise.

Sorry for the novel, this is an issue that forms a direct assault on the very fabric of our Constitutional Republic. Kind of important.

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