Reply #39: The legal authority is very simple. [View All]

[FBaggins]

Your interpretation implies that the President of the United States has the power to tell Congress "I have something I want to say to you and you have to sit there and listen"... mine relies on the notion that the Constitution established co-equal branches of government that don't have the authority to order each other around within their own spheres.

Now which one matches whatever civics classes you've attended?

We don't have a king. We have a chief executive... and the Congress isn't part of the executive branch or answerable to it.

both houses of Congress or one house.

Yes. He can convene one or both houses. He can "call them into session". Those terms actually mean specific things. "Put them in a room of my choosing and forcing them to listen to me" is not part of the definition.