A01 – författare

Choice Outstanding TitleThe U.S. Constitution is clear on the appointment of executive officials: the president nominates, the Senate approves. But on the question of removing those officials, the Constitution is silent—although that silence has not discouraged strenuous efforts to challenge, censure, and even impeach presidents from Andrew Jackson to Bill Clinton. As J. David Alvis, Jeremy D. Bailey, and Flagg Taylor show, the removal power has always been and continues to be a thorny issue, especially as presidential power has expanded dramatically during the past century. Linking this provocative issue to American political and constitutional development, the authors recount removal power debate from the Founding to the present day. Understanding the historical context of outbreaks in the debate, they contend, is essential to sorting out the theoretical claims from partisan maneuvering and sectional interests, enabling readers to better understand the actual constitutional questions involved. After a detailed review of the Decision of 1789, the book examines the initial assertions of executive power theory, particularly by Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, then the rise of the argument for congressional delegation, beginning with the Whigs and ending with the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. The authors chronicle the return of executive power theory in the efforts of Presidents Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and Cleveland, who all battled with Congress over removals, then describe the emergence of new institutional arrangements with the creation of independent regulatory commissions. They conclude by tracking the rise of the unitarians and the challenges that this school has posed to the modern administrative state. Although many scholars consider the matter to have been settled in 1789, the authors argue that a Supreme Court case as recent as 2010—Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board—shows the extent to which questions surrounding removal power remain unresolved and demand more attention. Their work offers a more nuanced and balanced account of the debate, teasing out the logic of the different institutional perspectives on this important constitutional question as no previous book has.

This profusely illustrated comprehensive key for identifying amphibians and reptiles from the continental United States and Canada incorporates a wealth of scientific findings.Since the first edition was published in 1998 and the second in 2012, the number of currently recognized species of native amphibians and reptiles in the area covered by this key has increased from 545 to 634 to 685, and the number of established non-native species has increased from 39 to 58 to 67. The increase in native taxa reflects the dynamic nature of modern systematics and the use of new (especially molecular) techniques to elucidate relationships and redefine species boundaries. The increase in non-native species reflects the porosity of the North American borders when it comes to controlling animal imports.The key is easy to use and illustrated with outstanding line drawings that show details of color patterns and structures used for identification. To accommodate the additional taxa, the number of line drawings in this third edition has increased from 257 to 279 to 295. In addition, nine maps illustrate the distributions of species that have been recognized since the publication of maps in the most recent editions of the Peterson Field Guides to the reptiles and amphibians of eastern, central, and western North America. A large number of annotations detail current taxonomic ambiguities or disagreements and the literature cited has been expanded. Collectively these features enhance opportunities to teach and learn the classification and identification of amphibians and reptiles in the continental United States and Canada.