directly responsible to the people
whose welfare they advance or imperil. They are decisions of a kind for
which the Judiciary has neither aptitude, facilities nor responsibility
and which has long been held to belong in the domain of political power
not subject to judicial intrusion or inquiry."[371]
To the same effect are the Court's holding and opinion in Ludecke _v._
Watkins,[372] where the question at issue was the power of the President
to order the deportation under the Alien Enemy Act of 1798 of a German
alien enemy after the cessation of hostilities with Germany. Said
Justice Frankfurter for the Court: "War does not cease with a cease-fire
order, and power to be exercised by the President such as that conferred
by the Act of 1798 is a process which begins when war is declared but is
not exhausted when the shooting stops. * * * The Court would be assuming
the functions of the political agencies of the Government to yield to
the suggestion that the unconditional surrender of Germany and the
disintegration of the Nazi Reich have left Germany without a government
capable of negotiating a treaty of peace. It is not for us to question a
belief by the President that enemy aliens who were justifiably deemed
fit subjects for internment during active hostilities do not lose their
potency for mischief during the period of confusion and conflict which
is characteristic of a state of war even when the guns are silent but
the peace of Peace has not come. These are matters of political judgment
for which judges have neither technical competence nor official
responsibility."[373]
The President as Law Enforcer
TYPES OF EXECUTIVE POWER
The Constitution does not say that the President shall execute the laws,
but that "he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed,"
i.e., by others, who are commonly, but not always with strict accuracy,
termed his subordinates. What powers are implied from this duty? In this
connection five categories of executive power should be distinguished:
first, there is that executive power which the Constitution confers
directly upon the President by the opening clause of article II and, in
more specific terms, by succeeding clauses of the same article;
secondly, there is the sum total of the powers which acts of Congress at
any particular time confer upon the President; thirdly, there is the sum
total of discretionary powers which acts of Congress at any particular
time confer upon
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