Friday, March 14, 2014

Home Truth

The invaluable John Hayward, on the "Enforce the Law" bill that is currently making its way through Congress:
Politically speaking, Republicans have already accomplished an important objective by getting President Obama to go on the record opposing a law that would require him to obey the law.  But there are serious principles at stake here.  It’s not just a gotcha game to remind everyone that Senator Barack Obama claimed to be an implacable opponent of far less serious abuses of power than President Barack Obama has committed.  The new law would give the House and Senate legal standing to sue the Administration if they believe he is failing to execute a duly ratified law, and pass a resolution to that effect.

As things stand, it is very difficult for Congress to demonstrate the sort of direct “injury” that would give them legal standing to bring a court case.  And as we’ve seen over the past few years, there isn’t much of anything else keeping executive power in check.  Of course, Democrats decry this bill as an insult to their man in the White House, but they really should be thinking ahead to the day it’s not their man in the White House.  Obama’s incredibly dangerous precedent makes the legislative branch largely superfluous.  It’s hard to imagine a worse offense against the Constitutional order than a desperate President rewriting legislation on the fly to save his party’s bacon in the next election.
What Hayward is referring to is the Leader of the Free World's penchant for delaying, changing, or simply ignoring provisions of his signature achievement, the Affordable Healthcare Act, a/k/a Obamacare. The larger point matters a lot -- an unchecked executive branch is a problem no matter which party is in charge; it would be a problem if a libertarian were in charge. If laws can be changed at whim, we no longer are governed by the rule of law. It never ends well.

1 comment:

W.B. Picklesworth said...

There is no rule of law.