776
Opinion of Scalia, J.
authorization has not been effected by the statutes upon which the Government relies.
I do not see how consideration of those arguments profits from analysis of the historical sharing of power between Parliament and the English throne. William and Mary's acceptance of the Bill of Rights, and Parliament's enactment of the Mutiny Act of 1689, see ante, at 762-765, are presumably significant occurrences for students of the unwritten English constitution. Our written Constitution does not require us to trace out that history; it provides, in straightforward fashion, that "The Congress shall have Power . . . To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces," U. S. Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 14, and as the Court notes, see ante, at 767-768, it does not set forth any special limitation on Congress's assigning to the President the task of implementing the laws enacted pursuant to that power. And it would be extraordinary simply to infer such a special limitation upon tasks given to the President as Commander in Chief, where his inherent powers are clearly extensive.
In drafting the Constitution, the Framers were not seeking to replicate in America the government of England; indeed, they set their plan of government out in writing in part to make clear the ways in which it was different from the one it replaced. The Court acknowledges this, see ante, at 766, but nonetheless goes on to treat the form of English government as relevant to determining the limitations upon Clause 14's grant of power to Congress. I would leave this historical discussion aside. While it is true, as the Court demonstrates, that the scheme of assigned responsibility here conforms to English practices, that is so not because Clause 14 requires such conformity, but simply because what seemed like a good arrangement to Parliament has seemed like a good arrangement to Congress as well.
I have one point of definition or conceptualization, which applies to those portions of the opinion that I have joined. While it has become the practice in our opinions to refer to
Page: Index Previous 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007