Deep Dives / The Scorecard

The Scorecard

For every president who broke something, America tried to build a guardrail. Here's what they did, what we built, and whether it held.

How to read this page

Each card covers one president. Every card has four sections:

1. What they did — their worst actions
2. What broke — rules or norms they violated
3. What we built — laws passed to stop it
4. Did it hold? — traffic light
Held — the guardrail worked Eroded — partially weakened over time Broken — actively being dismantled

Words you'll see on this page

Emoluments: Getting paid on the side while you're president. The Constitution bans it.

Impoundment: Holding back money Congress already said to spend.

Habeas corpus: The right to go before a judge instead of being locked up without a trial.

Censure: A formal public scolding by Congress. Embarrassing, but no legal penalty.

Rescission: When the president asks Congress to cancel money it already approved.

Inspector general: An independent investigator inside a government agency who looks for waste, fraud, and abuse.

Merit-based civil service: Government workers hired for their skills, not their political connections.

Executive order: A directive from the president. Has the force of law, but can be overturned by the next president or by a court. Learn more →

John Adams

1797–1801 · Federalist

Eroded

“Criminalized criticism”

What they did

  • • Signed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which made it a crime to criticize the president or the government.
  • • Used the law to jail newspaper editors and even a congressman who spoke out against him.
  • • Made it harder for immigrants to become citizens and easier for the president to deport them without a trial.

What broke

  • × Freedom of speech and freedom of the press
  • × The idea that political opposition is legal, not criminal
  • × Due process for immigrants (the right to a fair hearing before punishment)

What we built after

Political backlash (1800–01)

Thomas Jefferson won the next election and pardoned everyone convicted. Three of the four laws were repealed or allowed to expire. Adams's party — the Federalists — never recovered.

Did it hold?

The norm against punishing political speech held for over a century, but cracked under Woodrow Wilson during World War I and again with the Smith Act in 1940. The Espionage Act of 1917 is still on the books today.

Andrew Jackson

1829–1837 · Democrat

Broken

“Defied the Supreme Court”

What they did

  • • Pushed the Indian Removal Act through Congress, which forced 15,000 Cherokee off their land. About 4,000 died on the Trail of Tears.
  • • When the Supreme Court ruled that Native land was protected, Jackson refused to enforce the decision.
  • • Created the "spoils system" — firing government workers and replacing them with his political supporters.
  • • Shut down the national bank and moved government money to banks run by his allies. The Senate censured him (a formal public scolding).

What broke

  • × Separation of powers — the president is supposed to follow the courts
  • × Treaty obligations (the government had signed treaties with Native nations)
  • × Merit-based government jobs (hiring based on skill, not loyalty)
  • × Congress's power over money and banking

What we built after

Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act (1883)

Created a system where government workers are hired based on qualifications, not political connections. Established competitive exams for federal jobs. This was the foundation of the nonpartisan civil service for 140+ years.

Did it hold?

The civil service system held for 140 years. It is now under direct attack through Trump's Schedule F executive order, which reclassifies career government workers into at-will employees who can be fired for political reasons. The norm against defying the Supreme Court is also being actively tested.

James Buchanan

1857–1861 · Democrat

Eroded

“Secretly rigged a court case”

What they did

  • • Secretly wrote to Supreme Court justices before the Dred Scott decision, pressuring them to rule that Black people could never be citizens.
  • • Used his inaugural address to endorse the ruling before it was even public — because he already knew the outcome.
  • • When states started leaving the Union, he said secession was illegal but claimed the government couldn't stop it. He did nothing.

What broke

  • × Judicial independence — the president isn't supposed to secretly pressure judges about cases they're deciding
  • × The presidential oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution"
  • × The duty to enforce federal law

What we built after

13th Amendment (1865)

Abolished slavery.

14th Amendment (1868)

Established that anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen with equal rights. Directly overturned the Dred Scott decision.

15th Amendment (1870)

Said the right to vote cannot be denied based on race.

Did it hold?

The amendments endure, but their enforcement has been inconsistent — Jim Crow laws, voter suppression, and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 show the guardrails need constant maintenance. There is still no law preventing a president from privately lobbying justices.

Andrew Johnson

1865–1869 · Democrat

Eroded

“Sabotaged civil rights”

What they did

  • • Vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, and fought against the 14th and 15th Amendments.
  • • Used pardons and executive power to put former Confederates back in charge across the South, sabotaging Reconstruction.
  • • Fired his Secretary of War without Senate approval, directly defying a law Congress passed to stop him.
  • • First president to be impeached. Acquitted by a single vote.

What broke

  • × Congress's power to pass laws (used the veto to block civil rights)
  • × The principle that the president must carry out laws Congress passes
  • × The Senate's role in approving or removing officials

What we built after

14th Amendment (1868)

Equal protection under the law and birthright citizenship.

15th Amendment (1870)

Banned denying the vote based on race.

Tenure of Office Act (1867)

Said the president couldn't fire certain officials without Senate approval. (Later repealed in 1887 — courts said presidents do have broad firing power.)

Did it hold?

The amendments held, but their enforcement was undermined by Jim Crow for a century. The Tenure of Office Act was repealed. The question of how far presidential firing power goes is being actively litigated now — specifically around Trump's mass firing of inspectors general.

Abraham Lincoln

1861–1865 · Republican

Held

“Suspended rights in wartime”

What they did

  • • Suspended habeas corpus — the right to go before a judge if you're arrested — without Congress's approval.
  • • Set up military trials for civilians, censored newspapers, and jailed suspected Confederate sympathizers without charges.
  • • Issued the Emancipation Proclamation under "war powers" — freeing enslaved people in rebel states without a vote in Congress.

What broke

  • × Habeas corpus (the Constitution says only Congress can suspend it)
  • × The right to a trial in a civilian court
  • × Freedom of the press

What we built after

Habeas Corpus Suspension Act (1863)

Congress retroactively approved Lincoln's suspension — making it legal after the fact.

Ex parte Milligan ruling (1866)

The Supreme Court ruled that military trials for civilians are unconstitutional when regular courts are open. This became a critical guardrail.

Did it hold?

Largely yes. The Milligan precedent has been tested (Guantanamo Bay military commissions under Bush) but remains important law. Lincoln is unique on this list because the context — an actual civil war — matters. Most historians judge his actions as extreme but justified by an existential crisis.

Warren G. Harding

1921–1923 · Republican

Eroded

“Cronyism and corruption”

What they did

  • • Filled the government with personal friends — the "Ohio Gang" — who stole from taxpayers at every opportunity.
  • • His Interior Secretary secretly leased government oil reserves to private companies in exchange for $400,000 in bribes. This was the Teapot Dome scandal — the biggest corruption case in American history at that time.
  • • Other officials committed fraud at the Veterans' Bureau, the Justice Department, and agencies handling seized property.

What broke

  • × Public trust — government officials aren't supposed to profit from their positions
  • × Stewardship of public resources (the oil belonged to the public)
  • × Merit-based appointments

What we built after

Federal Corrupt Practices Act (1925)

Required campaigns to disclose who was funding them and set spending limits.

Revenue Act of 1924 (1924)

Gave Congress the power to obtain any taxpayer's tax records — a direct response to Teapot Dome.

McGrain v. Daugherty (Supreme Court) (1927)

Confirmed that Congress has the power to subpoena witnesses and force them to testify — with legal consequences if they refuse.

Did it hold?

The tax records law was used to get Trump's tax returns — but it took years of lawsuits before Congress actually got them. The guardrail exists but proved painfully slow against a president who fights every request.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

1933–1945 · Democrat

Held

“Court-packing and internment”

What they did

  • • Tried to pack the Supreme Court: When the Court kept blocking his programs, he proposed adding extra justices who would side with him. His own party stopped him.
  • • Forced 120,000 Japanese Americans — two-thirds of them U.S. citizens — into internment camps during World War II, based on nothing but their race.
  • • Won four presidential elections in a row, breaking the unwritten rule that presidents only serve two terms.

What broke

  • × Judicial independence — trying to stack the Court to get the rulings you want
  • × Due process and equal protection (locking people up because of their race, with no evidence they did anything wrong)
  • × The two-term tradition George Washington established

What we built after

22nd Amendment (1951)

Limits presidents to two terms. Written directly because of FDR.

Civil Liberties Act (1988)

Formally apologized for the internment camps and paid $20,000 to each surviving victim. A government commission found the internment was caused by "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership."

Korematsu repudiated (2018)

The Supreme Court officially said the ruling that upheld internment was "gravely wrong the day it was decided."

Did it hold?

The 22nd Amendment is enforceable and has held. The court-packing norm held for decades but has been tested rhetorically from both parties. The internment guardrails were tested by the Trump travel ban, though the Court drew distinctions.

Woodrow Wilson

1913–1921 · Democrat

Eroded

“Jailed dissenters, hid his illness”

What they did

  • • Signed the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act, which made it a crime to speak against the war or the government. Over 2,000 Americans were arrested. Socialist leader Eugene Debs got 10 years in prison for giving a speech.
  • • After a massive stroke left him partially paralyzed and partially blind, his wife and doctor hid his condition for 17 months. She decided what reached his desk. The Vice President was afraid to act. The country had no functioning president.

What broke

  • × Free speech — Americans were jailed for their opinions
  • × Transparency about whether the president can actually do the job
  • × Constitutional governance — an incapacitated president is not a functioning government

What we built after

Sedition Act repealed (1920)

The worst of the speech laws were repealed. But the Espionage Act of 1917 is still in force today.

First Amendment case law (1919–69)

Courts gradually raised the bar for when the government can punish speech. Today, speech can only be punished if it directly incites immediate lawless action.

25th Amendment (1967)

Created a process for what happens when a president can't do the job — the VP and Cabinet can step in, or the president can voluntarily hand over power temporarily.

Did it hold?

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment (removing an unfit president) has never been used. The Espionage Act remains a concern — it has been used against whistleblowers and journalists' sources. The Wilson precedent of hidden incapacity resurfaced during debates about President Biden's fitness in 2024.

Richard Nixon

1969–1974 · Republican

Broken

“Watergate and the cover-up”

What they did

  • • Orchestrated the Watergate break-in and cover-up — burglarizing the opposing party's headquarters, then lying about it and obstructing the investigation.
  • • Used the FBI and IRS to spy on, audit, and harass people on his political "enemies list."
  • • Ordered the firing of the special prosecutor investigating him (the Saturday Night Massacre). The Attorney General and Deputy AG both resigned rather than carry out the order.
  • • Refused to spend money Congress had approved (impoundment) — holding back funds to punish programs and agencies he didn't like.
  • • Secretly bombed Cambodia without telling Congress or the public.

What broke

  • × Rule of law and obstruction of justice
  • × Independence of law enforcement (the FBI and IRS aren't supposed to be the president's weapons)
  • × Prosecutorial independence (the special prosecutor is supposed to be free from presidential interference)
  • × Congress's power of the purse (the president must spend money the way Congress says)
  • × War powers (only Congress can authorize military action)

What we built after

War Powers Resolution (1973)

Requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops. Limits deployments to 60 days without Congress's OK.

Impoundment Control Act (1974)

Says the president must spend money the way Congress approved it. If the president wants to cancel spending, they have 45 days to get Congress to agree.

Federal Election Campaign Act (1974)

Created the Federal Election Commission and set rules for campaign donations and spending.

Inspector General Act (1978)

Created independent watchdogs inside every federal agency to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse.

Ethics in Government Act (1978)

Required top officials to disclose their finances. Created the special prosecutor role so investigations couldn't be shut down by the president.

FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) (1978)

Created a secret court that must approve government surveillance — so the FBI can't just spy on whoever the president tells them to.

Civil Service Reform Act (1978)

Strengthened protections so career government workers can't be fired or punished for political reasons.

Did it hold?

Nearly every post-Watergate reform is currently being tested or actively dismantled. Inspectors general have been mass-fired. The Impoundment Control Act is being defied on a scale Nixon never attempted. DOJ independence has been replaced by explicit targeting of political opponents. The special prosecutor provision expired in 1999. The War Powers Resolution is routinely circumvented.

Donald Trump

2017–2021, 2025–present · Republican

In progress

“The worst of all of them”

What he did

  • • Fired 17 inspectors general in one night — the watchdogs created after Nixon.
  • • Defied court orders on deportations. JD Vance cited Andrew Jackson as the model.
  • • Withheld $425+ billion Congress approved — dwarfing the impoundments that created the 1974 law.
  • • Weaponized the DOJ: ordered prosecutions of political opponents by name. 100+ prosecutors resigned.
  • • Pardoned ~1,500 January 6 defendants, including 169 who pled guilty to assaulting police.
  • • Launched the $TRUMP meme coin: $324M+ in fees to his companies. Businesses received $7.8M from foreign governments in term one.
  • • Schedule F: reclassified tens of thousands of career government workers so they can be fired for political reasons.
  • • DOGE: gave Elon Musk's associates access to federal systems to fire workers and cancel contracts — without Senate confirmation.
  • • Defunded universities and investigated critics. Ordered agencies to target opponents.
  • • Declared national emergencies to bypass Congress on the border wall and tariffs.

What broke

  • × Inspector general independence (from Nixon reforms)
  • × Compliance with court orders (from the Jackson precedent)
  • × The Impoundment Control Act (from Nixon reforms)
  • × DOJ independence (from post-Watergate norms)
  • × Pardon power norms (no precedent for pardoning attacks on the government)
  • × Emoluments clause (from the founding, never enforced)
  • × Merit-based civil service (from the Pendleton Act of 1883)
  • × Protection of free speech and academic freedom
  • × Emergency powers limits (from post-Nixon reforms)

What we built after

That's on us. The 2026 midterms are the first chance to elect a Congress that will rebuild the guardrails. Read Sweeping Up the Rubble for the full to-do list.

Did it hold?

Almost every guardrail built after previous presidencies is now being tested or actively dismantled. The fundamental problem: most guardrails depend on the president choosing to follow them, or on enforcement mechanisms that run through the executive branch itself. When a president is willing to ignore norms and the enforcement runs through their own people, the guardrails fail.

The Cycle

A president pushes the limits → Something breaks → We build a guardrail → It erodes over time → The next one finds the cracks

This cycle has repeated for 230 years. The question is whether we can build guardrails with teeth this time.

Next up

The Worst of All of Them

See the visual map connecting Trump to every president on this page.

Then read

Sweeping Up the Rubble

The guardrails are broken. Here's what we need to build next.

Sources