Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
Page Number: 15.0

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

actions of the many departments and agencies within the 
Executive  Branch.    He  also  plays  a  role  in  lawmaking  by 
recommending  to  Congress  the  measures  he  thinks  wise
and signing or vetoing the bills Congress passes.  See Art. 
I, §7, cl. 2; Art. II, §3. 

No  matter  the  context,  the  President’s  authority  to  act
necessarily “stem[s] either from an act of Congress or from
the Constitution itself.”  Youngstown, 343 U. S., at 585.  In 
the latter case, the President’s authority is sometimes “con-
clusive  and  preclusive.”  Id.,  at  638  (Jackson,  J.,  concur-
ring).  When the President exercises such authority, he may 
act  even  when  the  measures  he  takes  are  “incompatible
with the expressed or implied will of Congress.”  Id., at 637. 
The exclusive constitutional authority of the President “dis-
abl[es] the Congress from acting upon the subject.”  Id., at 
637–638.  And  the  courts  have  “no  power  to  control  [the 
President’s] discretion” when he acts pursuant to the pow-
ers invested exclusively in him by the Constitution.  Mar-
bury, 1 Cranch, at 166. 

If the President claims authority to act but in fact exer-
cises  mere  “individual  will”  and  “authority  without  law,”
the courts may say so.  Youngstown, 343 U. S., at 655 (Jack-
son, J., concurring).  In Youngstown, for instance, we held 
that President Truman exceeded his constitutional author-
ity when he seized most of the Nation’s steel mills.  See id., 
at  582–589  (majority  opinion).    But  once  it  is  determined 
that  the  President  acted  within  the  scope of his  exclusive 
authority, his discretion in exercising such authority cannot 
be subject to further judicial examination.

The Constitution, for example, vests the “Power to Grant
Reprieves  and  Pardons  for  Offences  against  the  United 
States” in the President.  Art. II, §2, cl. 1.  During and after
the Civil War, President Lincoln offered a full pardon, with
restoration of property rights, to anyone who had “engaged 
in the rebellion” but agreed to take an oath of allegiance to
the Union.  United States v. Klein, 13 Wall. 128, 139–141