Understanding Our Constitution - Part 6 - The President's Cabinet

The President’s Cabinet is composed of appointed officers of the Executive Branch. It includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 Executive Departments. All are called Secretaries except for the Attorney General.

Cabinet members are nominated by the President and then presented to the Senate for confirmation. Other than confirmation, there are no legal or constitutional requirements for the job. Normally they are members of the same political party, but the President is free to select anyone, including opposition party members.

There are two restrictions:

The Ineligibility Clause of Article One of the Constitution:

No person holding any office under the United States, shall be a member of either house during the continuance in office.

Therefore, a sitting member of the Congress must resign his seat to accept a Cabinet appointment.

and 5 U.S.C. § 311 :

Passed after John Kennedy appointed his brother Robert Kennedy to the post of Attorney General, it prohibits federal officials from appointing family members to certain governmental posts, including seats in the Cabinet.


The “Big Four”, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, and the Attorney General form an inner circle and are considered the most important members of the Cabinet. Recently, the Secretary of Homeland Security has risen to a level of significance.

The Secretary of State is the head of the Department of State - concerned with foreign affairs. She is the highest ranking Cabinet Secretary both in line of succession (fourth in line to succeed to the Presidency) and order of precedence in the Cabinet.

The Secretary of the Treasury participates in the formulation of broad fiscal policies that have general significance for the economy. He manages the public debt and, along with the Treasurer, must sign Federal Reserve notes before they can become legal tender.

The Secretary of Defense is the head of the Dept. of Defense - concerned with the armed services and military matters. He is responsible for the formulation and execution of general defense policy. By Statute (10 U.S.C. § 113), the secretary must be a civilian who has not served actively in the armed forces for at least 10 years.

The Attorney General is the head of the Dept. of Justice - the main legal advisor to the government and the chief law enforcement officer of the US. In matters of extreme importance, he appears in person before the Supreme Court.

The Secretary of Homeland Security is the head of the Dept. of Homeland Security - concerned with protecting the homeland and the safety of citizens. The Department consists primarily of transferred homeland security components: Coast Guard, Border Patrol, Secret Service, FEMA etc. It does not include the FBI or CIA.

The other cabinet members are the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, & Veterans Affairs.