In its appeal, New York City v. United States, No. 99-328, the city argued that Congress had, in violation of the principles of federalism, "commandeered the city's legislative and executive policy-making apparatus".
"You are up against a unlawful police state that has everything in its hands — security apparatuses, executive power, everything," Mr. Aswany added.
While experts say the government should have six months of reserves to keep the state apparatus functioning, international oil executives are watching developments carefully to see if Tripoli can regain control of the country and ensure security for foreign investment.
"If you seriously dialed it back to the criminal-justice apparatus you will paralyze the executive branch's ability to go where they believe the bad guys are," says Benjamin Wittes, a fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Westminster grew up around an abbey, which brought a royal palace and, in its train, the entire central apparatus of the British state its legislature, executive, and judiciary.
But there are other branches of government, including of course, the executive branch, and the growing (and increasingly independent) apparatus of the security state.
"Increasingly, what we're seeing is a lot of the policy-making apparatus of the federal government shifting to the executive branch," said William Howell, a University of Chicago expert on presidential powers.
That executive will also have to decide whether to keep the regulatory apparatus at the Big Board or spin it off into a separate organization.
His focus is on an obscure, Reagan-era executive order that serves as a foundational set of rules for the intelligence apparatus.
"Courts don't have the apparatus to analyze" such issues, so they must be left to the executive branch, with oversight by Congress, Mr. Hauck said.
