Does the POTUS have the authority rename mountain peaks all on his own?
Does the POS have the authority rename mountain peaks all on his own?Fixed.
Nope.
The ONLY authority POTUS has is enumerated in the Constitution.
Do what Lincoln said: read the Constitution. It is your only legal bulwark of freedom against the tyranny of the feds.
The secretary of the interior does, if the Board of Geographic Names does not act in a “reasonable time.” The administration contend since it has been 40 years since the state of Alaska first requested the change the board has not acted in a timely manner.
Considering the FACT he’s not LEGALLY the POTUS, Sultan Hussein does as he pleases.
He can't rename a national park -- that was already done made Denali by Congress -- because Congress established the park.
The naming of other geographical places is an administrative decision by the Board of Geographic Names of the Department of the Interior.
The BGN can't act if there's pending legislation and Ohio's Congressional delegation has introduced bills on the topic for decades, so the name remained "Mt. McKinley."
It's not like the executive has to go to Congress to get the name changed, but I don't see how Obama can get around the "pending legislation" rule if the legislation is still on the table.
Ralph Regula, the Ohio Congressman, who led the fight to keep the old name, was not only Representative from McKinley's old district, but also the most famous graduate of the William McKinley School of Law in Canton. He left office some years back but other Ohio Reps have kept up his fight.
Maybe the most surprising thing is that so many rough and tough Alaskans go with the crunchy Indian name.