Unitary Executive

During the Alito confirmation hearings, a previously little known legal doctrine, the Unitary Executive, got a ton of play and attention. I will not go into the details of it, as the wiki entry I linked to covers it quite well.

The small point I want to raise is that if, under the Unitary Executive Theory, all agencies and heads thereof are directly beneath the President and answerable to him, it would follow that the President would be vicariously liable for any actions taken by the agencies. Literally, they would be "agents" to the President (the principal).

In this scenario, any action, good or bad, would be imputed to the President from any agent within the Executive Branch. For most actions, the President would enjoy immunity as the Head of State, but this would not prevent impeachment or sanction. Furthermore, as with Saddam Hussein, some actions that violate jus cogens could be prosecuted, and as with Augosto Pinochet the executive could subsequently lose immunity, although the political question doctrine could still apply.