Talk:National Command Authority

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I think we should clean up the end of the article as there seems to be a disagreement in the article as to whether the President can use an acting Secretary of Defense for the NCA. While the edit at the bottom of the article is correct in saying the President needs the confirmation of the Senate to appoint a new Secretary of Defense, it's also true that the President can appoint an acting Secretary of Defense until a confirmation vote happens. As far as I know an acting Sec. of Def. would have the same authority as a confirmed one but whether this specific authority is automatically transferred, I don't know. Without any research, I would assume it does but then again its such a serious issue maybe Congress excluded this authority. Then again maybe it does transfer since a decision needs to be made extremely quickly. Does anyone have any evidence either way? (It'd also be nice to cite this authority in the article too) --Hammy 13:07, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Placement of "unitary executive" within article

"It must be noted that as a matter of constitutional law, the President represents the unitary executive power of the United States."

This statement is factually questionable and represents POV.

The idea that the President is a "unitary executive" is very much debated; see the 'pedia page on Unitary executive theory; not only is the "unitary executive" a matter of "theory", but the page itself is in a POV dispute; whether the President is or isn't a unitary executive is an open question and not a settled "matter of constitutional law". In addition, and with more bearing on the subject of this article, even if the President is a "unitary executive", s/he shares control of the military with Congress who has the power to declare war (and implicitly, though disputedly, holds the power to authorize the use of offensive (vs. defensive) military force--see War Powers Resolution). Congress may even possibly be able to issue orders for individual units to attack, though this is disputed (Congress' power to issue letters of marque and reprisal).

Therefore I'm going to make a suitable edit to de-POV the unitary executive statement. Katana0182 18:25, 6 January 2007 (UTC)