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Harold Koh, David Barron, and Martin Lederman, all legal scholars with a record of emphasizing limits on presidential power, changed their views when they became executive branch lawyers in the Obama administration. Koh found a way to justify President Barack Obama's unilateral use of force in Libya, while Barron and Lederman provided justification for the targeted killing, without judicial hearing, of U.S. citizens identified by the executive branch as senior operational terrorist leaders. This article considers whether these changed approaches can be justified by the scholars' changed roles.

Intro -- Contents -- Foreword by Louis Fisher -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 - The Constitution and Emergency Presidential Power -- 2 - Presidential Power in the Young Republic: Washington's Neutrality Proclamation, A "Half-War" with France, and the Alien and Sedition Acts -- 3 - Lincoln and the Wartime Constitution -- 4 - Setting Limits on Wartime Power? : The 'Ex Parte Milligan' Decision -- 5 - Expanded Presidential Power During World War II: Nazi Saboteurs and Military Commissions -- 6 - The Internment of Japanese Americans During World War II -- 7 - The 'Youngstown' Steel Seizure Case: The Court Sets Limits on Presidential Power -- 8 - Nixon, Watergate, and a Bid for Unbridled Presidential Power -- 9 - Emergency Presidential Power at its Zenith: The Bush Administration and the Unitary Executive -- 10 - Detaining and Trying Suspected Terrorists -- 11 - Torture in the War on Terror -- 12 - Warrantless Wiretapping: Presidential Power to Set Aside Acts of Congress? -- 13 - Detention and Military Commissions Under the Obama Administration -- 14 - The State Secrets Privilege: Emergency Presidential Power by Another Name? -- 15 - The Obama Administration and Military Action in Libya -- Notes -- Index.

Dick Cheney, John Yoo, and others incorrectly claim that Alexander Hamilton's vision of an "energetic executive" contemplated a president with broad, even plenary power over the use of military force. In fact, neither Hamilton's writings nor the text of the Constitution itself embraces this notion. In practice, unilateral presidential decisions to order the use of military force have been neither wise nor necessary, outside of the limited emergency defensive context. Recent episodes involving Libya, Syria, and ISIS expose the failure of the energetic executive model.