EXECUTIVE POWER IN EMERGENCIES

Authors

Maurice S. Culp, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

The events of the last few months indicate that the American chief executive is capable of vigorous action in emergencies. The executive frequently has to use the armed forces of the State or Nation in the performance of his duty to see that the laws are faithfully executed in troubled districts, but it is a new experience to have the governors and the President take emergency measures in combatting a depression. The banking crisis, which first received executive notice in Nevada last November and which attained alarming proportions with Governor Comstock's "bank holiday" in Michigan, culminated in the national holiday on March sixth. Other depression problems have led to the proclamation of mortgage moratoria by the governors of Minnesota and Oklahoma. Such emergency measures present legal and constitutional problems of vast importance. While the problems as regards the state and the national executive are in many ways similar, there are significant differences as regards both specific powers and their history which justify a separate treatment of the executive powers of the governor and of the President.

Recommended Citation

Maurice S. Culp, EXECUTIVE POWER IN EMERGENCIES, 31 Mich. L. Rev. 1066 (1933).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol31/iss8/3