Prof. Richard Painter and Dean Emeritus E. Thomas Sullivan Co-Author Op-Ed in Star Tribune About U.S. Founders and Presidential Power

Professor Richard Painter, S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law, and E. Thomas Sullivan, Dean Emeritus at Minnesota Law, co-authored an op-ed in the Minnesota Star Tribune about what America’s founders concluded about presidential power, responsibility, and accountability. They wrote, “As we approach the 250th anniversary of the declaration, given the founders’ experience fighting the British over taxes and tariffs under the despotic rule of a king, it is time to reflect on their conclusions regarding monarchical and dictatorial overreach by the executive. They set forth grievances against the king as grounds for political freedoms from a tyrannical government. They made clear that ‘governments are instituted’ and obtain ‘their just powers from the consent of the governed’ — the people, not from a dictatorial leader.”