Between Terrorism and Government Surveillance

By Tracy Mitrano. Some one should write a book tracking the ebb and flow of the relative power of the three branches of government over the course of American history and how that tide shaped, and was shaped, by the circumstances. For example, Congress dominated most of the post-Republic, antebellum period (exception for Jackson), until the Civil War when Lincoln loomed large over the landscape. Andrew Johnson and Ulysses Grant made a hash of the executive while the Supreme Court defined the practical meaning of the Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th) more often for the worse. Read more...