Trump v. Slaughter · ¶9

Nearly 250 years ago, the Framers decided to vest “[t]he executive Power” in one person—“a President of the United States of America.” Art. II, §1, cl. 1. The choice was not made lightly. Within living memory were the “long train of abuses and usurpations” of a King who reigned as “a Tyrant.” Declaration of Independence ¶¶2, 30. Indeed, several delegates to the Constitutional Convention pushed for a multimember council instead of “unity in the Executive magistracy,” which they feared would serve as “the foetus of monarchy.” 1 Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, p. 66 (M. Farrand ed. 1911) (Farrand’s Records) (E. Randolph). But unity won out. Our Constitution’s drafters knew from experience that a “plurality in the executive”— the model in use by most States at the time—not only “diminishe[s]” the “activity, secrecy, and dispatch” necessary to ensure “good government” but “tends…

slip opinion, revised 7/07/26
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