The Unitary Executive theory and the Fuhrer Prinicple
are not strangers to each other. Indeed many of the biggest proponents of each share virulent racism as the foundation of their beliefs on all matters. The all powerful "One" who gets to say what goes on. This essay by a retired judge goes into some of the details of how the legal system in Germany failed the people in the rise of fascism.
During the consolidation of power by Hitler the "Fuhrer Prinicple" was bedrock foundation for the fascists to move forward. The idea that one person has full power and speaks not only for the government but those words and beliefs are to encompass and supersede any and all thoughts of the people. Just by saying the words anything the Fuhrer wanted or thought was considered to be decree upon the land and people.
The German judiciary and lawyers all swore new oaths not to the German Constitution but to the following:
" I swear loyalty to the Führer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, obedience to the law, and conscientious fulfillment of the duties of my office, so help me God.”[25]"
Like our current DOJ and the other cabinet members sitting around at cabinet meetings and taking their turns praising the ghastly and grotesque thing that currently holds the title POTUS. That German oath originally was to obey the Constitution. We know how that new oath changed things. Will we see it for ourselves here and be able to act before it is too late?
The essay notes that Eichmann was asked at his trial whether there was a specific law calling for the extermination by death in the camps:
"At his trial in 1961, in answering the question whether any law empowered the extermination of human beings in concentration camps, Adolf Eichmann testified that “[t]here was certainly no law . . . I only know that people relied on the saying, ‘Fuehrerworte haben Gesetzeskraft’ (the Führer’s words have the power of law) that was the saying at that time.”[33]"
The Nuremberg Race Laws and other laws all combined the weight of the government to undertake the slaughter of people all while people were obeying "the Fuhrer's words".
Notice how that falls in line with the Unitary Executive claims and the claims of being able to declassify documents etc. just by saying it is so. The Unitary Executive supporters are completely comfortable with someone being able to just speak things into being law or being without any process or review. Two dead people in Minneapolis are an example of what happens when power and policy are unleashed without process and review by informed people. Ignorant, malevolent leaders being able to enjoy a "speak and it will be done" capability will always end in tragedy.
The rise of the horror of fascism and the belief that all power should reside in one person and that person is all powerful over the culture was incremental in Germany and it has been brought back to life as the Unitary Executive Theory. Despite some differences that can be cited they both have evil at their core and have previously and always will result in evil tragedy for human beings.
Usurping the processes of democracy is never a good thing and that includes obeying court rulings and/or packing judicial/government positions with people of zero qualifications and only their blind loyalty in hand. Demanding blind loyalty might work for a crooked real estate company but it doesn't for a country and society.
Please note that this entire post is not about all of the ins and outs of how the horror of the Holocaust happened. It is about how the two leadership theories have some very important similarities and we should not be fooled that the one with the newer "label" hasn't already brought tragedy and we can also be sure that the consequences will get worse if the "all powerful POTUS" concept continues.
At least some court decisions are trying to hold the line now and then on various things if we can enforce them. I have also include a link to the bio for the author of the essay retired Justice Richard D. Fybel. Please also read the original essay in its' entirety as it gives more depth of how his parents escaped Germany as well.
https://www.uclalawreview.org/judges-lawyers-legal-theorists-and-the-law-in-nazi-germany/
https://appellate.courts.ca.gov/district-courts/4dca/bio/richard-d-fybel