(NewsNation) — White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller caused controversy after saying that President Donald Trump has “plenary authority” during an interview with CNN.
The conversation, which was about Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Oregon, quickly went viral not only for Miller’s statement but also for how he appeared to cut himself off mid-sentence and leave his sentence incomplete.
CNN later went to a commercial break, saying there were technical difficulties during Miller’s interview. When the station returned from break, neither the anchor nor Miller brought up the term again for the rest of the interview.
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What does plenary authority mean?
Plenary authority refers to one government official, like President Trump, having complete power on a particular matter, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute.
Just before Miller stopped talking, he brought up Title 10 of the U.S. Code, which lays out the conditions for deployment of the National Guard. It says the president may make the move to deploy the National Guard to certain states if he considers that “rebellion against the authority of the United States make it impracticable to enforce the laws.”
Why was declaring plenary authority controversial?
Miller’s claim became controversial because only governors have the authority to deploy the National Guard in their own states and maintain order within it. Various elected officials, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, have pushed back against Trump’s previous threats to deploy troops to states.
The Trump administration has previously used the Title 10 argument in its case with the state of California and the deployment of the National Guard there in early June.
That has also led to concern over how Trump is using his presidential powers, and in turn sparked the nationwide “No Kings” protests.
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Does Trump have plenary authority?
No, he does not have plenary authority, as the U.S. government has three branches of government that keep each other in check, also known as the “checks and balances” system.
Those branches are the executive branch, which is held by the president; the legislative branch, which makes up Congress; and the judicial branch, which is comprised of the courts.
In the case of the Trump administration’s National Guard deployment to multiple states, the federal courts have played a role in keeping those powers in check.
In both California and Oregon, the courts have ruled that Trump’s troop deployment did not meet the conditions of Title 10 and said it was “unwarranted.”
Congress could also call hearings to investigate actions the president takes and pass laws to prevent them. If the president vetoes the resulting bill, Congress could override it with enough votes.
