Playing with Constitutional Fire Thursday, November 20, 2014 | Andrew Napolitano | Townhall Every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has deferred some deportations. President Reagan deferred deportations for about 100,000 families of foreign nationals in 1987 under his reading of the congressionally authorized 1986 amnesty law, and President George H.W. Bush did so in 1990 for about 350,000 foreign nationals under his reading of the same law. Each of these was based on a principled public presidential reading of the words and purposes of a federal statute. Obama does not purport to read and interpret the current immigration law; rather, he effectively rewrites it. What can Congress do? Congress can pass legislation to invalidate Obamas executive actions. Yet even if it did so and overrode his certain veto, it has no assurances that Obama would be bound by the new legislation. He refuses to enforce the plain language of well-established and never judicially altered federal statutes. What assurances does Congress have that he would follow any new statutes that he has vetoed and that regulate his behavior? Is the blanket refusal to enforce federal laws that profoundly affect five million persons -- and in the process severely straining the social services of all 50 states -- an impeachable offense? The president is playing with constitutional fire, and impeachment is the only constitutional remedy available, short of 25 months of a constitutional conflagration that he has ignited. - See more at: andrewnapolitano/articles/playing-with-constitutional-fire#sthash.FGdy8SAJ.dpuf
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:51:10 +0000
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