Existing comment:
Executive Power
For centuries Magna Carta has stood for the principle that no man is above the law, not even a king. Although King John's Magna Carta does not explicitly articulate this idea, it did create checks designed to restrain the king whenever he failed to uphold the terms of the charter. Chapter 61 of King John's Magna Carta stipulates that twenty-five barons should be selected to ensure that the king upholds all of the provisions of the charter. When the king is in violation, the barons have the authority to seize the king's properties by military force -- or "distrain" him -- until he complies.
This provision was left out of later reissues of Magna Carta, but the memory of the barons' threat of military force against the king made Magna Carta a symbol of the supremacy of the law over the will of the king. What also remained was the understanding that any act by the king or one of his agents that violated the terms of the charter was void, and, in the language of Edward I's 1297 Confirmation of the Charters, "should be undone and holden for naught."
For the framers of the United States Constitution, the checks and balances that operated between the three branches of government were a means to prevent any single branch of the government from governing capriciously. Despite the danger that any of the branches might attempt to overreach its enumerated powers, Magna Carta remains to the present day an especially potent symbol for those seeking to limit the powers of the executive branch of the government. |