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Opinion of the Court
requirements of the Act in formulating their recommendations. Ibid.
Accepting for purposes of decision here the propriety of examining the President's actions, we nonetheless believe that the Court of Appeals' analysis is flawed. Our cases do not support the proposition that every action by the President, or by another executive official, in excess of his statutory authority is ipso facto in violation of the Constitution. On the contrary, we have often distinguished between claims of constitutional violations and claims that an official has acted in excess of his statutory authority. See, e. g., Wheel-din v. Wheeler, 373 U. S. 647, 650-652 (1963) (distinguishing between "rights which may arise under the Fourth Amendment" and "a cause of action for abuse of the [statutory] subpoena power by a federal officer"); Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U. S. 388, 396-397 (1971) (distinguishing between "actions contrary to [a] constitutional prohibition," and those "merely said to be in excess of the authority delegated . . . by the Congress").
In Larson v. Domestic and Foreign Commerce Corp., 337 U. S. 682, 691, n. 11 (1949), for example, we held that sovereign immunity would not shield an executive officer from suit if the officer acted either "unconstitutionally or beyond his statutory powers." (Emphasis added.) If all executive actions in excess of statutory authority were ipso facto unconstitutional, as the Court of Appeals seemed to believe, there would have been little need in Larson for our specifying unconstitutional and ultra vires conduct as separate categories. See also Dugan v. Rank, 372 U. S. 609, 621-622 (1963); Harmon v. Brucker, 355 U. S. 579, 581 (1958) ("In keeping with our duty to avoid deciding constitutional questions presented unless essential to proper disposition of a case, we look first to petitioners' non-constitutional claim that respondent [Secretary of the Army] acted in excess of powers granted him by Congress" (emphasis added)).
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