But how could people - if they did - so exceed their authority?

You exceeded your authority, and I begin to understand why.

"Where things get difficult is when the agent exceeds its authority."

The court said the commission exceeded its authority when it approved the rules in 2003.

If a shareholder vote is required, he said, then the board has exceeded its authority.

A district court found in 1987 that the Corps had exceeded its authority.

You've exceeded your authority, and I'm ordering you to let this boy be.

I think you were protecting a friend, and you've way exceeded your authority to do it.

"It was the work of overzealous security people who exceeded their authority."

I exceeded my authority by running a day past the maximum the technicians gave me.