executive agreement

— I constantly urged my visitors to remember that I was sworn to uphold the Constitution, and therefore their determination to make certain that nothing should be done to destroy it could be no greater than my own. I began a practice of assuring visitors that I would support an amendment which would say only, but in unequivocal language, that any treaty or Executive agreement violating the Constitution would have no force and effect. Many who came to see me on the issue were satisfied by this answer, but the more knowledgeable of the opponents quickly protested that even such a simple amendment might give to the courts opportunity to make some unpredictable interpretation.