William Henry Harrison became the first President to die in office, in 1841, and his death left a great deal of confusion about who should replace him as President. The vague language of the Constitution made it confusing as to whether the office of President should immediately devolve to the Vice-President, or whether the Vice-President should simply fulfill the responsibilities of President without the office or title. John Tyler, Harrison’s Vice-President, had himself inaugurated as President and acted quickly to ensure that his position as President could not be questioned, establishing the Tyler Precedent.

The “line-item” veto was an attempt by a newly-Republican Congress to help bring federal spending under control in the mid-nineties. Essentially, Congress cobbled together a bill that would allow the President to strike individual portions of bills (generally budget measures), but sign the rest of the bill into law. One of the portions that Clinton removed, after being vested with this power, affected some “pork” that Congress secured for New York.

New York sued, hence the case. The Supreme Court held that this ability of the president violated the Presentment Clause of the Constitution; the President was not technically signing into law a bill that was passed by Congress.

There are 538 electors, which correspond to the 100 members of the Senate, 435 members of the House of Representatives, and 3 additional members for the District of Columbia. In order to carry the majority of the electoral votes, a President must win at least 270 electoral votes.

An Executive Order allows the President to pass a law outside of Congress. It allows the President to bypass Congress in making laws. It was originally uncommon in American political behavior, but it has gained prominence since the Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. The usage of Executive Order peaked with Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as a function of his massive overhaul of social security and welfare in America during the New Deal program.

The constitution lays out the powers and responsibilities of the office of the Vice-President. One of those is to cast the tie-breaking vote in case of a tie within the Senate.

This question is a bit tricky at first – technically, no US President has ever been FULLY impeached. According to the Constitution, the process of impeachment occurs in two stages: first, the House must vote to charge the sitting President with crimes and must then initiate impeachment proceedings. If these proceedings are passed by the House, then the issue is sent to the Senate, which holds a trial to determine the President’s innocence or guilt (with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as acting judge). Two Presidents – Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton – have undergone the first stage of the impeachment process: the House charged each man with committing crimes and filed impeachment papers against them; however, the Senate exonerated both men, although Johnson escaped conviction by only a single vote. As for Richard Nixon, he most likely would indeed have been fully impeached – both charged and convicted – if he had not resigned from office (the only President to ever do so) before Congress could act.

In cases in which Congress has adjourned within ten days of sending a bill to the White House, the President is indeed allowed to use a pocket veto to passively reject the bill – he simply declines to act on the bill, letting it die through inactivity. However, the President does not have the power of the line-item veto; s/he must either pass or decline a bill in its entirety, even if the President both approves and disapproves of some of its provisions. The Constitution places no limitations at all upon the number of vetoes which a President may use, but most Presidents tend to hold their veto power in reserve anyway, saving it up for use on bills whose passage they particularly do not wish to see. Historically, it has proven very difficult for Congress to successfully gather up the three-fourths majority vote (in both the House and Senate) needed to override a Presidential veto. Consequentially, the vast majority of bills which the President vetoes never return to Congress, whose members seldom ever even attempt to re-pass a vetoed bill.

Although the Constitution appoints the President as the one and only Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, the President does not actually have the power to unilaterally deploy the military. Any assembly and/or arming of the military for international deployment requires prior Congressional authorization, which usually comes in the form of a formal declaration of war. The President is permitted to request that Congress declare war, as FDR did in the aftermath of Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, but the ultimate decision is intended to be left up to Congress. However, the President is solely entrusted with many national security and/or diplomatic responsibilities: only the President may enter into treaties, confer diplomatic relations, and end relations with any foreign country. In addition, the President is also allowed to enter into executive agreements with foreign heads of state. Executive agreements resemble treaties, but unlike treaties, these do not require Senate approval (merely notification) before they can go into effect. Most executive agreements concern low-key activities between the US and other nations, such as the delivery of mail or import/export custom rules.

The making of treaties with foreign powers is shared between the Senate and the President. Any treaty made, must be approved by the Senate before it takes effect. Pardons and receiving ambassadors are powers reserved to the Executive.

The Constitution explicitly lays out the procedure for treaty making. After a treaty is negotiated by the President, it is sent to the Senate for approval. of the Senate must vote yea for the Treaty to be ratified by the United States. A simple majority of the senate is not sufficient to approve a treaty.