{Supposedly} Obama extends presidential power in bypassing Congress on gun control.

[No Elephants]

WARNING; I am not sure the author of this story has done a scholarly study of exercises of Executive Power in the past.

Certainly, CIC powers have been used very broadly.

Lincoln freed slaves in the South via Executive Order, though Congress later acted to pass the 13th amendment..

Truman racially integrated the military via Executive Order while Jim Crow laws were semi-sacred to the PTB in the South.

Reagan used an Executive Order to ban gays from the military though that order was not very different from the reality of what had been happening all along in practice.)

And let's not get started on Nixon, who said to David Frost that the President was above the law. ("If the President does it, it's not illegal.")

I am not minimizing the seriousness of separation of powers. And I am not one who usually thinks that the end justifies the means, either. I am not even saying whether or not Lincoln, Truman and Reagan acted constitutionally.

I am simply saying that, as a statement of historical fact, I am not sure if it is factually accurate to say that Obama has made an unprecedented power grab. And I don't know how careful the author of this story, Stern, was about writing this story. So, read with caution.

Obama extends presidential power in bypassing Congress on gun control

By Marcus Stern

WASHINGTON | Thu Jan 17, 2013 1:03am EST

(Reuters) - During the past two years as his frustration with a "dysfunctional" Congress has grown, President Barack Obama has resorted to bypassing the legislative branch as he did on Wednesday to implement tighter gun control laws.

"Where they won't act, I will," he said in October 2011 as part of a "We Can't Wait" campaign he launched 10 months after Republicans took over the U.S. House of Representatives.

Since then, the president has turned to executive orders, policy directives, waivers, signing statements and other administrative steps to bypass Congress and act on contentious issues, including immigration, welfare, education reform and now gun violence.

Acting in response to the shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut, Obama announced 23 executive actions Wednesday designed to ensure guns don't get into the wrong hands. He also called on Congress to ban the sale of assault rifles, limit the size of ammunition clips and require background checks for all gun sales.

"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.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/17/us-usa-guns-orders-idUSBRE90G06S20130117


I am not familiar with Howell, but I do know that, if I tried, I could get 5 experts on the Constitution, including separation of powers, to say that Obama has done nothing in excess of his predecessors and another 5 to say that Obama's actions are unprecdented. I bet I could do the same on almost any topic of Constitutional law.

For that matter, the biggest experts on the Constitution in this country are supposedly the Supreme Court Justices and they rule 5-4 on almost everything these days.

Besides, if Constitutional experts are anything like economic experts.....

The story also cites the so-called mini Dream Act Executive Order, wherein Obama ordered the Naturalization Authorities not to enforce against certain violations of law. "Prosecutorial discretion" is an age old concept in our law. The Framers were well aware of it.

Even at the law enforcement level, if a cop sees a kid stealing an apple from a fruit stand at the same time as he or she sees a bank robbery in progress, that officer is going to have to set a law enforcement priority on the spot.

The functions of law enforcement and prosecution are 100% within the Executive Branch, be the Executive a Mayor, a Governor or a President. Beyond that, the U.S. Constitution inexplicably gave the President unconditional pardon powers. So, I don't see setting enforcement paramenters for law enforcement as being outside Executive power. It's not as though they don't have enough other kinds of immigration violations to keep them busy.

So, what would be Congress's remedy for abuse by a President, should Obama go too far with this enforcement priority stuff?

Impeachment, also covered in the U.S. Constitution.

[Enthusiast]

1. House Republicans are already threatening to impeach

the President over these gun actions. Of course they are in the pocket of the NRA and they're Teabaggers for the most part. They are misinformed and unreasonable by nature.

[No Elephants]

2. Let them. The Senate will acquit. And Obama's ratings will go up, just as did Clinton's,

after Gingrich's House wasted the nation's time and money impeaching Clinton, not to mention distracting the POTUS from the business of the nation.

I don't think Republicans are in a hurry to repeat that. So, I call bs on those threats.