Presidential War Power

A classic and bestselling work by one of America’s top Constitutional scholars, Presidential War Power garnered the lead review in the New York Times Book Review and raised essential issues that have only become more timely, relevant, and controversial in our post-9/11 era. In this third edition, Louis Fisher updates his arguments throughout, critiques the presidential actions of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and challenges what he views as their dangerous expansion of executive power. Spanning the life of the Republic from the Revolutionary Era to the War on Terror, the new edition covers for the first time: Indefinite detention of civilians and non-civilians without trialPresident Obama’s failed effort to close GuantánamoNSA wiretapping and Fourth Amendment violationsPresidential decision-making relating to the wind-down of the wars in Iraq and AfghanistanU.S. military operations against Libya in 2011Continued abuse of the state secrets privilege in national security court casesSecret legal memos justifying the use of UAVs or drones for targeted killings overseasExtended comparison of the expansion of executive power under George W. Bush and Barack Obama