Page "Article Two of the United States Constitution" Paragraph 43

The President must " take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

" This clause in the U. S. Constitution imposes a duty on the President to take due care while executing laws and is called Take Care Clause.

The purpose of this clause is to ensure that a law is faithfully executed by the President, even if the president disagrees with the purpose of that law.

According to former United States Assistant Attorney General Walter E. Dellinger III the Supreme Court and the Attorneys General have long interpreted the Take Care Clause as standing for the proposition that the President has no inherent constitutional authority to suspend the enforcement of the laws, particularly of statutes.

Quite the contrary: The Take Care Clause demands that the president obeys the law, the Supreme Court said in Humphrey's Executor v. United States, and repudiates any notion that the president may dispense with the law's execution.

In Printz v. United States, 521 U. S. 898 ( 1997 ), the Supreme Court explained how the President executes the law: " The Constitution does not leave to speculation who is to administer the laws enacted by Congress ; the President, it says, " shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed ," Art.

II, § 3, personally and through officers whom he appoints ( save for such inferior officers as Congress may authorize to be appointed by the " Courts of Law " or by " the Heads of Departments " who with other presidential appointees ), Art.

II, § 2.