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He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient;

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and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint...Judges of the supreme Court...

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Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated...

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He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors

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Thursday we read through the 1st paragraph of Article 2 Section 1 of the Constitution identifying the expressed powers and expanding on understanding them and the powers inherent with the role of President based on those powers. Today you will review those powers and then finish looking at and understanding the President's expressed powers.

You will first need to make a copy of this padlet to begin. For each column you will read the Constitution clause and then research online to find either a tweet or news article to provide as an example of that power. You will link to the tweet or article and write a brief explanation of the power and how the President is exercising it.

Commander-in-Chief is done for you as an example. Once you are done you will click on the share button and copy the url to post into the Canvas assignment. This assignment is to be completed individually.

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and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

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...he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices

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The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;

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The President as Commander, has the inherent power to order the military to carry out operations such as shooting down balloons or moving troops around the world.

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SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C., Feb 4 (Reuters) - A U.S. military fighter jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, a week after it first entered U.S. airspace and triggered a dramatic -- and public -- spying saga that worsened Sino-U.S. relations.

President Joe Biden said he had issued an order on Wednesday to take down the balloon, but the Pentagon had recommended waiting until it could be done over open water to safeguard civilians from debris crashing to Earth from thousands of feet (meters) above commercial air traffic.

"They successfully took it down, and I want to compliment our aviators who did it," Biden said.

Multiple fighter and refueling aircraft were involved in the mission, but only one -- an F-22 fighter jet from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia -- took the shot at 2:39 p.m. (1939 GMT), using a single AIM-9X supersonic, heat-seeking, air-to-air missile, a senior U.S. military official said.

China strongly condemned the military strike on an airship that it says was used for meteorological and other scientific purposes, and which it said had strayed into U.S. airspace "completely accidentally" -- claims flatly dismissed by U.S. officials.

"China had clearly asked the U.S. to handle this properly in a calm, professional and restrained manner," China's foreign ministry said in a statement. "The U.S. had insisted on using force, obviously overreacting."

The balloon was shot down about six nautical miles off the U.S. coast of the Atlantic Ocean, over relatively shallow water, potentially aiding efforts to recover elements of the Chinese surveillance equipment over the coming days, U.S. officials said.

One U.S. military official said the debris field was spread out over seven miles (11 km) of ocean, and multiple U.S. military vessels were on site.

The downing of the balloon came shortly after the U.S. government ordered a halt to flights in and out of three airports in South Carolina -- Wilmington, Myrtle Beach and Charleston -- due to what it said at the time was an undisclosed "national security effort." Flights resumed on Saturday afternoon.

While Saturday's shootdown concludes the military dimension to the spying saga, Biden is likely to continue to face intense political scrutiny from Republican opponents in Congress who argue he failed to act quickly enough.

A senior administration official said after shooting down the balloon, the U.S. government spoke directly with China about the action. The State Department also briefed allies and partners around the world, the official said.

Questions remain about how much information China may have gathered during the balloon's trek across the United States.

The balloon entered U.S. airspace in Alaska on Jan. 28 before moving into Canadian airspace on Jan 30. It then re-entered U.S. airspace over northern Idaho on Jan. 31, a U.S. defense official said. Once it crossed over U.S. land, it did not return to open waters, making a shootdown difficult.

U.S. officials did not publicly disclose the balloon's presence over the United States until Thursday.

"It's clear the Biden administration had hoped to hide this national security failure from Congress and the American people," said U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican who leads the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

Biden's emphasis on Saturday that -- days ago -- he ordered the balloon shot down as soon as possible could be an effort to respond to such critics.

Former President Donald Trump, Biden's potential rival in the 2024 election, called earlier this week for the balloon to be shot down, and has sought to portray himself as stronger than Biden on China. The U.S. relationship with China is likely to be a major theme of the 2024 presidential race.

Washington had called the balloon's appearance a "clear violation" of U.S. sovereignty and notified Beijing about the shootdown on Saturday, a U.S. official said.

Still, officials on Saturday appeared to play down the balloon's impact on U.S. national security.

"Our assessment -- and we're going to learn more as we pick up the debris -- was that it was not likely to provide significant additive value over and above other (Chinese) intel capability, such as satellites in low-Earth orbit," the senior U.S. defense official said.

A Reuters photographer who witnessed the shootdown said a stream came from a jet and hit the balloon, but there was no explosion. It then began to fall.

The Pentagon assesses that the balloon was part of a fleet of Chinese spy balloons. On Friday, it said another Chinese balloon was flying over Latin America.

"Over the past several years, Chinese balloons have previously been spotted over countries across five continents, including in East Asia, South Asia and Europe," the U.S. official said.

The suspected spy balloon prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a visit to China this week that had been expected to start on Friday.

The postponement of Blinken's trip, which had been agreed to in November by Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, was a blow to those who saw it as an overdue opportunity to stabilize an increasingly fractious relationship between the two countries.

China is keen for a stable U.S. relationship so it can focus on its economy, battered by the now-abandoned zero-COVID policy and neglected by foreign investors alarmed by what they see as a return of state intervention in the market.

Reporting by Randall Hill in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, and Phil Stewart, Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; Writing by Phil Stewart and Diane Bartz; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Marguerita Choy, Leslie Adler, Sandra Maler and William Mallard

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Phil Stewart

Thomson Reuters

Phil Stewart has reported from more than 60 countries, including Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China and South Sudan. An award-winning Washington-based national security reporter, Phil has appeared on NPR, PBS NewsHour, Fox News and other programs and moderated national security events, including at the Reagan National Defense Forum and the German Marshall Fund. He is a recipient of the Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence and the Joe Galloway Award.

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U.S. fighter jet shoots down suspected Chinese spy balloon

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SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C., Feb 4 (Reuters) - A U.S. military fighter jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, a week after it first entered U.S. airspace and triggered a dramatic -- and public -- spying saga that worsened Sino-U.S. relations.

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This shows that the President has the power to sign treaties and agreements with other governments.

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The US president, Barack Obama, and Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian leader, today signed an arms treaty that will slash their respective nuclear arsenals by a third.

The two men shook hands to applause after signing what Obama called a historic agreement in the opulent setting of Prague castle in the Czech Republic. Obama said the new agreement made the US and the world more secure and helped stopped the drift in US-Russia relations.

"Together we've stopped that drift," Obama said, adding that the agreement was a "milestone for US-Russia relations".

He acknowledged, however, that the new agreement was "just one step on a longer journey" and said it has set the stage for further cuts. There was also a stern message for Iran as Obama said the world would not tolerate actions from countries that flouted the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and threatened collective security. Medvedev echoed Obama's concerns, saying that the world could not turn a blind eye to Iran, which he said had not responded to "many constructive proposals". He hinted that Russia would be open to further sanctions against Tehran.

The new treaty will cut American and Russian strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 over seven years, about a third less than the 2,200 currently allowed.

Obama returned to Prague one year after he outlined his vision before an enthusiastic crowd for a world without nuclear weapons. The speech helped him win the Nobel peace prize, but Obama has acknowledged that eliminating nuclear weapons is unlikely to be achieved during his lifetime.

The agreement to reduce nuclear warheads by a third succeeds the 1991 strategic arms reduction treaty (Start), which expired in December. It will have to be ratified by the US Senate - where conservative Republicans can be expected to give it a rough ride - and the Russian parliament.

In addition to the warhead limit, the US and Russia must cut their total land, sea and air-based launchers to 800 each, and no more than 700 actually deployed within seven years. While that will leave plenty of nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over, it marks a big drop from the total of 19,000 strategic warheads both sides deployed during the cold war.

Obama wants to move for even deeper cuts but faces Russian reluctance because of American plans to build a missile defence system in Europe to counter a possible Iranian threat. Russia argues that antiballistic missile systems could neutralise its smaller arsenal.

Even as Obama pushes for deep cuts in nuclear weapons, the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon is developing a weapon to plug the gap left by nuclear warheads: missiles armed with conventional warheads that could strike anywhere in the world in less than an hour. US military officials say the intercontinental ballistic missiles, known as prompt global strike weapons, are a necessary new form of deterrence against terrorist networks.

Obama will have to balance his desire for deep cuts against the more immediate goal of keeping Russia on side to ratchet up the pressure on Iran and its suspected nuclear weapons programme. The US is seeking another round of sanctions against Tehran and Obama is also courting support from China, which recently signalled its willingness to adopt a tougher line towards Iran.

Obama's trip to Prague is part of an intensive round of nuclear diplomacy. On Tuesday, the US released the results of a comprehensive nuclear strategy review in which the US committed itself for the first time not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states provided that they are party to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and in compliance with their nuclear non-proliferation obligations - a caveat that excludes North Korea and Iran.

Next week, Obama welcomes to Washington the leaders of 46 countries, including the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, for a summit meeting on nuclear security.

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Barack Obama signs nuclear treaty with Russia

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US and Russian presidents meet in Prague * Arms treaty will slash two countries' nuclear arsenals by a third

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This shows how the President has the ability to recommend laws they should pass.

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Key moments from Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address you may have missed

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In his State of the Union address Thursday, President Biden highlighted key achievements of his first term and made the case that voters should give him a second. Here are six highlights.

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As chief executive, the presidents opinions stands above most.. If the president were to deny a bill, most of the time the bill will not be looked over and resubmitted. Rather just then re-submit and look over.

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We track the national security powers available to the executive branch and work to strengthen legislative and judicial checks.

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Although the courts are trusted, There is still a part in the process of when a judge uses their personal opinion upon a case. This can sadly cause an improper decision or sentencing from personal opinion

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Supreme Court ethics reform is only part of a long-overdue effort to limit the power of an out-of-control federal judiciary.