Attorney Alan Dershowitz said Monday on Newsmax that the president holds the ultimate authority to dictate employment within the federal government.
Lawyers representing federal employees filed a lawsuit in California on Monday, accusing Elon Musk and President Donald Trump of illegally threatening firings if workers failed to report their weekly accomplishments, in an effort to halt widespread layoffs. During an appearance on “The Record with Greta Van Susteren,” Dershowitz said that Trump has the authority to make these decisions.
“He’s the head of the executive branch, and if he has a conflict between Elon Musk, who is not technically employed by the government, and the head of the FBI, who obviously is technically employed by the government, the head of the executive makes the decision,” Dershowitz said.
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Dershowitz also drew on historical precedents and brought up what former President Thomas Jefferson did.
“The first thing Thomas Jefferson did when he got into office in 1801 is he fired every federalist he could find. He said, I don’t want any federalists here. They’re a bunch of pro this and pro that, and I’m against that, and I’m going to fire them all,” Dershowitz said. “He attacked the judiciary, and they sued him, and it was Marbury versus Madison. So executive authority is very, very broad under the Constitution, and there is only one executive, unlike the Supreme Court, which has nine members in Congress, which is 500-something.
Musk said on Saturday that all federal employees are required to submit a report detailing their previous week’s work activities. Dershowitz argued that there is no issue with requesting federal employees to detail their weekend activities.
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“There’s only one executive, and that’s the president. And, ultimately, the buck stops there, and he has to make the decision. I don’t see any constitutional issues that are being raised by that. And frankly, I don’t see any problem about asking employees to list the five things they did this weekend,” Dershowitz said.
Host Greta Van Susteren pointed out that critics argue this could lead to unnecessary invasions of privacy and misuse of resources. However, Dershowitz said he views the measure as a demonstration of presidential power, meant to reinforce accountability within the sprawling government bureaucracy.
“This is a show of power. This is muscle flexing. And, clearly, it can’t be enforced. And you have the heads of the union saying, ‘Don’t answer,’ and others saying, ‘Well, maybe we’ll take our retirement benefits, we’re going to retire anyway,’” Dershowitz said. “This is a work in progress. And it’s an attempt to try to determine what the executive branch is all about. Let’s remember at the time of the Constitution, the executive branch was one person, the president, not even the vice president, just the president.”
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Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 20 mandating the return of all federal employees to in-person work, terminating remote work arrangements except under exceptional circumstances. Following this, a federal judge initially halted federal buyout offers but subsequently permitted the continuation of a plan that allows employees who opt to resign by Feb. 6 to stay in a “deferred resignation program,” receiving pay until Sept. 30 without working.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.