When Americans elected Barack Obama, they believed they were voting for a chief executive. What they got is a chief legislator and chief justice. If the administration doesn’t like a law, they call it unconstitutional and ignore it. If they can’t pass a policy democratically, they enact it anyway.
“I wish I had a magic wand,” President Obama said last year, “[I] could make this [whole immigration agenda] happen on my own… I’d like to work around Congress.” Well, the White House must have found its fairy godmother, because the administration isn’t just working around Congress — they’re steamrolling over it. On Friday, the President continued his pattern of lawlessness by sidestepping the House and Senate and current law on immigration policy. Without even feigning some sort of congressional collaboration, the administration announced that it would stop deporting young illegal immigrants who come to the U.S. as children. If they don’t have a criminal record and have either graduated high school or served in the military, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano insists that these under-30 year-olds will be eligible for work permits.
If the concept sounds familiar, that’s because it’s part of the DREAM Act, a piece of immigration legislation that’s been introduced but not passed. What President Obama did was to essentially take a broad swathe of the bill and enact it unilaterally — without so much as a House or Senate vote. In my opinion, it’s essential that we address the issue of immigration. In fact, I feel so strongly about it that immigration was included as a core value in my book, Personal Faith, Public Policy. But political urgency doesn’t excuse political irresponsibility. Instead of flagging this as a priority and taking the initiative to work with leaders on a solution, the White House circumvented the Constitution and claimed a power that only Congress can exercise.
When Americans elected Barack Obama, they believed they were voting for a chief executive. What they got is a chief legislator and chief justice. If the administration doesn’t like a law, they call it unconstitutional and ignore it. If they can’t pass a policy democratically, they enact it anyway. We’ve witnessed the President’s contempt for the law with the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), gambling, obscenity prosecutions, homosexual benefits, and more. Just this past weekend, the President celebrated gay pride month by mocking DOMA as the “so-called Defense of Marriage Act.” Well, guess what? This “so-called” federal marriage statute is still the law of the land. Defying it doesn’t make the law any less binding.
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