Thread by @ariehkovler

Great thread. There was a point in Trump's term where there was a serious debate about constraining the powers of the presidency. What happened to that debate?

https://twitter.com/jon_rauch/status/1361315010702684160

1. Congress should legislate against Presidents owning businesses that get foreign gifts, making explicit the Emoluments Clause.

2. Congress should take back or curtail a lot of the powers it's given to the Presidency, especially the emergency powers detailed in this @lizagoitein article theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

@LizaGoitein 3. Congress should fix the Federal Vacancies Reform Act to prevent the abuse of acting appointments it allows.

@LizaGoitein 4. Take prosecutions out of political control. This is a big one, but *of course* the people who decide on prosecutions shouldn't be political appointments. That's a recipe for corruption.

@LizaGoitein In the UK, the Attorney General is a Cabinet member, but there's also an independent Director of Public Prosecutions. A US DPP could be like an FBI director, serving for a fixed term and outside direct political control.

5. As @emptywheel reminds me, strengthen the role of Departmental Inspectors-General, to the extent that this can be constitutional. Could Congress create its own IG-analogues that aren't part of the Executive as a part of its oversight function? Not sure.

@emptywheel 6. Enforcing Congressional subpoenas is a tough one, again because of separation of powers issues. But Congress could use its powers of the purse to, say, automatically zero out departmental budgets if enough subpoenas are ignored.

I'm just spitballing ideas here. The details aren't important. But the *debate* is vital. How can we stop this all happening again?

We've all had a four-year object lesson on how the Presidency can be abused. There are no guardrails. This might be the only chance to build some.