{"id":167509,"date":"2025-10-10T08:32:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/stephen-miller-said-trump-has-plenary-authority-what-does-that-mean-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T08:32:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:32:59","slug":"stephen-miller-said-trump-has-plenary-authority-what-does-that-mean-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/stephen-miller-said-trump-has-plenary-authority-what-does-that-mean-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Miller said Trump has \u2018plenary authority\u2019. What does that mean? – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

White House deputy chief of staff had an odd pause during a CNN interview when asked about the president\u2019s power to deploy national guard troops
An odd moment in a CNN interview with Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has been circulating on social media after Miller\u2019s distinct pause when discussing the \u201cplenary authority\u201d of the president. A technical glitch \u2013 crossed wires from another broadcast in Miller\u2019s earpiece \u2013 caused him to stop talking before completing his thought, CNN said.
But the term \u201cplenary authority\u201d, has been taken as subtext for the broader ambitions of the Trump administration<\/a> to assert legally unassailable power over the use of the military and other functions of government.
The Legal Information Institute of Cornell\u2019s law school defines \u201cplenary authority\u201d as \u201cpower that is wide-ranging, broadly construed, and often limitless for all practical purposes\u201d.
It is most often applied to legislative bodies, as when government chooses to levy a tax or expend revenue. Lawmakers do not need to refer to the courts or a higher federal power for authorization to act when they have plenary authority over a matter.
Miller had just been asked a question about the president\u2019s legal authority to deploy federalized national guard troops. Miller\u2019s initial response was to cite title 10 of the federal code, and then to assert that this gives the president plenary authority to direct those troops as he sees fit.
Title 10<\/a> is the general military law of the armed forces. While it does not use the term \u201cplenary authority\u201d or \u201cplenary power\u201d, the administration relies on its text to assert wide-ranging authority to use the military. The executive also relies on article II section two of the US constitution which states: \u201c[t]he President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.\u201d
Not really.
Jennifer Elsea published a primer <\/a>with the Congressional Research Service on the current debate about the extent of the president\u2019s power to use the military in December 2024.
The constitution reserves the power to declare war to Congress, and has constrained presidential authority over the military with laws like the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the use of the military to police civilians, the Insurrection Act, which establishes exceptions to Posse Comitatus, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice and \u2013 again \u2013 title 10 of the federal code, which widely constrains what the military is allowed to do, and what orders the president can issue lawfully.
The president does <\/em>have plenary authority over the government\u2019s conduct in foreign affairs, as delineated by the constitution and affirmed by supreme court decisions. Presidents have referred to this authority when explaining the use of the military in other countries.
For many, the term \u201cplenary authority\u201d, as applied to Trump, is synonymous with autocratic control and disregard for the constitution or court orders.
Trump asserted near-plenary authority in Newsom et al v Trump \u2013 the lawsuit by Gavin Newsom, California\u2019s governor, that forced Trump to withdraw most national guard troops from the Los Angeles area. Trump\u2019s assertion of plenary power was rejected by the court.
Eric McArthur, representing the federal government, asserted that Trump\u2019s decision to federalize national guard troops to send to Portland is beyond review by a federal court. Citing Martin v Mott, in which the supreme court in 1827 ruled that deployment of the militia was at the discretion of the president alone. McArthur argued that deployment relies on preconditions of \u201crebellion\u201d and that the president has \u201csole and exclusive judgement about whether the statutory preconditions have been met\u201d.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

White House deputy chief of staff had an odd pause during a CNN interview when asked about the president\u2019s power to deploy national guard troopsAn odd moment in a CNN interview with Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has been circulating on social media after Miller\u2019s distinct pause when discussing the \u201cplenary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}