Quantum Windbag
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- May 9, 2010
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What the world needs is more honest left wing progressives speaking out against the excesses of Obama as he single handily takes apart out government.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL TIPPING POINT | JONATHAN TURLEY
James Madison fashioned a government of three bodies locked in a synchronous orbit by their countervailing powers. The system of separation of powers was not created to protect the authority of each branch for its own sake. Rather, it is the primary protection of individual rights because it prevents the concentration of power in any one branch. In this sense, Obama is not simply posing a danger to the constitutional system; he has become the very danger that separation of powers was designed to avoid.
A glance at recent unilateral moves by Obama illustrates how executive power has expanded, largely at the cost of legislative power.
The suspension of a portion of the ACA is only the latest such action related to the healthcare law:
The heart of the healthcare law was a set of minimum requirements for insurance plans. After Obama was embarrassed by the cancellations of millions of nonconforming plans (when he had said no one would lose a plan they had and liked), he created first one temporary exemption and then, last week, another, adding two years to the compliance deadline set by law.
On his own authority, Obama also chose other dates for compliance with the employer mandate.
Congress ended a subsidy for members of Congress and their staffs so that they would obtain insurance under the ACA on the same terms as other citizens. Obama ordered that the same subsidies would continue, in defiance of the law.
The president has shown similar unilateral inclinations in other areas:
He asked Congress to change the law to exempt certain classes of immigrants particularly children who are in the U.S. illegally from deportation. Congress refused to pass the so-called Dream Act, but Obama proceeded to order agencies to effectively guarantee the very same changes.
The administration ordered all U.S. attorneys to stop prosecuting nonviolent drug crime defendants who would be subject to what Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. called draconian mandatory minimum sentences. The new rule effectively negates sentencing provisions set by Congress.
Obama opposed the No Child Left Behind Act and in effect nullified it through waivers of his own making.
For years, the Wire Act was interpreted to mean that Internet gambling was prohibited, which some states and businesses opposed. The Obama administration declared the act would now be treated as having the inverse meaning.
Some of these changes are admittedly close questions, and federal agencies are given considerable discretion in crafting regulations.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL TIPPING POINT | JONATHAN TURLEY