[don-o]

Excellent points. My “better than nothing” comment is more reflective of desperation for some form of resistance and accountability that rigorous adherence to the Constitution.

[Ben Ficklin]

One of the major congressional/presidential lawsuits was when Congress sued Nixon because he was "impounding" their appropriations.

All presidents since Van Buren had been impounding small amounts of Congress' appropriations, but Nixon thought that Congress was spending too much and worsening inflation, so Nixon started impounding larger amounts.

Congress sued and the court ruled in Congress' favor but by then Nixon was gone and Ford was prez. Ford didn't appeal the court decision which resulted in a large shift of power from the prez to Congress.

Both GW Bush and Obama have used "signing statements" in an attempt to claw back some of this power from Congress.