Of all the troubling aspects of the Obama presidency, none is more dangerous than the President’s persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead enforce his own policies via executive orders.
The President’s taste for unilateral action to circumvent Congress should concern every citizen, regardless of party or ideology. The great 18th-century political philosopher Montesquieu observed: “There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or body of magistrates.” America’s Founding Fathers took this warning to heart, and we should too.
Rule of law doesn’t simply mean that society has laws; dictatorships are often characterized by an abundance of laws. Rather, rule of law means that we are a nation ruled by laws, not men. No one—and especially not the president—is above the law. For that reason, the U.S. Constitution imposes on every president the express duty to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
Rather than honor this duty, President Obama has openly defied it by repeatedly suspending, delaying, and waiving portions of the laws that he is charged to enforce. When President Obama disagreed with federal immigration laws, he instructed the Justice Department to cease enforcing the laws.
He did the same thing with federal welfare law, drug laws, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act. In the more than two centuries of our nation’s history, there is simply no precedent for the White House wantonly ignoring federal laws and asking others to do the same.
For all those who are silent now: What would they think of a Republican president who announced that he was going to ignore the law, or unilaterally change the law? Imagine a future president setting aside environmental laws, or tax laws, or labor laws, or tort laws with which he or she disagreed.
That would be wrong—and it is the Obama precedent that is opening the door for future lawlessness. As Montesquieu knew, an imperial presidency threatens the liberty of every citizen. Because when a president can pick and choose which laws to follow and which to ignore, he is no longer a president.
Governing by Executive Orders
1. Disregarded 1996 welfare reform law in granting broad work waivers for work requirements of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
2. Implemented
portions of the DREAM Act, which Congress rejected, by executive action.
3. Ended some terror
asylum restrictions, by allowing asylum for people who provided only
“insignificant” or “limited” material support of terrorists.
4. Allowed immigrants in the U.S.
illegally, who are relatives of military troops and veterans, to stay in the
country and get legal status.
5. Extended federal marriage benefits by recognizing, under federal law, same-sex marriages created in a state that allows same-sex marriage even if the couple is living in a state that doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage.
6. Recognized
same-sex marriage in Utah, even though the Supreme Court stayed the court order
recognizing same-sex marriage in Utah and Utah said it would not recognize
same-sex marriages performed before the stay.
7. Refused to
prosecute violation of drug laws with certain mandatory minimums.
8. Issued signing statements, refusing
to enforce parts of congressional-enacted statutes.
9. Illegally refused to act on Yucca Mountain’s application to become a nuclear waste repository.
10. Falsely portrayed
the Benghazi terrorist attack as a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim
YouTube video, and then lied about the White House’s involvement.
11. Illegally
revealed the existence of sealed indictments in the Benghazi investigation.
12. Failed to enforce the Magnitsky Act
as required by law, by not adding Russian human rights abusers to a list of
people not permitted to travel to or do business in the U.S.
13. Killed four Americans overseas in counterterrorism operations without judicial process.
14. Continued to give Egypt aid after
the military took over its government, even though federal law prohibits aid to
Egypt in the event of a coup.
Obamacare
16. Delayed the
individual mandate for two years.
17. Allowed
individuals to buy health insurance plans in 2014 that did not comply with
Obamacare. Extended this delay until 2016—past the mid-term elections.
18. Extended the deadline to enroll in
Obamacare.
19. Illegally granted businesses a waiver from Obamacare’s employer mandate. Twice.
20. Illegally
continued the Obamacare employer contribution for congressional staffs.
21. Illegally delayed
the Obamacare caps on out-of-pocket healthcare payments.
22. Illegally delayed Obamacare
verification of eligibility for healthcare subsidies.
23. Illegally required people to violate their faith via the Obamacare contraception mandate.
24. As of May 2011, over 50% of
Obamacare waiver beneficiaries were union members (who account for less than
12% of the American work force).
Economy
25. Ordered Boeing to fire 1,000 employees in South Carolina and shut down a new factory because it was non-union.
26. Implemented a
moratorium on offshore drilling after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill without
statutory authority, and continued to enact new versions after federal courts
repeatedly invalidated the moratorium.
27. Treated secured
creditors worse than unsecured creditors in the Chrysler bankruptcy.
28. Terminated the pensions of 20,000
non-union Delphi employees in the GM bankruptcy.
29. Had SWAT teams raid a Gibson guitar factory and seize property, on the purported basis that Gibson had broken India’s environmental laws—but no charges were filed.
30. Government agencies are engaging in
“Operation Choke Point,” where the government asks banks to “choke off” access
to financial services for customers engaging in conduct the Administration does
not like—such as “ammunition sales.”
Executive Nominees and Personnel
31. Made illegal “recess” appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board when Congress wasn’t in recess. Ignored the rulings of three federal courts of appeals that held those nominations unconstitutional.
32. Appointed czars
to oversee federal policy specifically because czars do not require Senate
confirmation, earning criticism from stalwart Democrats such as West Virginia
Sen. Robert Byrd and Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold.
33. As of January
2012, 36 of the President’s executive office staff owed $833,970 in back taxes.
34. As of 2011, 311,566 federal
employees or retirees owed $3.5 billion in taxes.
Free Speech and Privacy
36. Circumvented the
Freedom of Information Act, by requiring White House Counsel review of all
documents to be released under the Freedom of Information Act that the
Administration believed pertained to “White House equities”—and then delayed in
producing many of these documents by FOIA’s statutory deadline, or didn’t
produce them at all.
37. Got secret
permission from the FISA Court to reverse restrictions on the National Security
Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and emails, permitting the NSA to search
American’s communications in its databases.
38. The Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau is seeking to monitor about 80% of U.S. credit card transactions.
39. Targeted Fox News reporter James Rosen by falsely labeling him a possible “co-conspirator” in a criminal investigation of a new leak.
40. Secretly obtained
phone records from staff at the Associated Press.
41. Had meetings with lobbyists in
coffee shops near White House to avoid disclosure requirements.
Other Lawless Acts
42. Aided drug cartels instead of enforcing immigration laws—as found by a federal judge. Border Patrol agents, multiple times, knowingly helped smuggle illegal immigrant children into the U.S.; “the DHS is encouraging parents to seriously jeopardize the safety of their children.”
43. Illegally sold
thousands of guns to criminals, in the operation known as Fast and Furious and
then refused to comply with congressional subpoenas about the operation.
44. Dismissed charges
filed by Bush Administration against New Black Panther Party members who were
videotaped intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling station during the
2008 election.
45. Argued for expansive federal powers
in the Supreme Court, which has rejected the Administration’s arguments
unanimously 9 times since January 2012.
46. Sued Louisiana to stop school vouchers and keep low-income minorities trapped in failing schools.
47. Threatened to
arrest military priests for practicing their faith during the partial
government shutdown.
48. Muzzled the
speech of military chaplains.
49. Sued fire
departments saying their multiple-choice, open-book written employment tests
were racially discriminatory.
50. Gave 23,994 tax refunds worth more than $46 million to aliens here illegally using the same address in Atlanta, GA.
Other Abuses of Power
52. Backed release of
the Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.
53. President Obama
told NASA administrator to “find a way to reach out to the Muslim world.”
54. Claimed the Fort Hood shooting was
“workplace violence” rather than terrorism.
55. Signed a stimulus bill that spent money on bonuses for AIG executives, and then acted shocked and outraged at the bonuses.
56. Gave $535 million
to Solyndra, which went bankrupt; Solyndra shareholders and officials made
substantial donations to Obama’s campaign.
57. Reneged on a
campaign promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in
office.
58. Increased the national debt more in
one term than President Bush did in two terms.
59. Extended mortgage assistance to people who bought multiple homes during the housing bubble.
60. Proposed rules
that would have decimated family farms, by prohibiting children under 18 from
doing many forms of farm work.
61. Former “safe
schools czar” has written about his past drug abuse and advocated promoting
homosexuality in schools.
62. Nominated Timothy Geithner—who had
significant tax issues —to head the Treasury Department, which enforces tax
laws.
63. Reneged on campaign promise to broadcast healthcare reform negotiations on C-SPAN.
64. Reneged on a
campaign promise to wait five days before signing any non-emergency bill (at
least 10 times during first 3 months in office).
65. Unilaterally,
increased the minimum wage for federal contract workers from $7.25 to $10.10,
via executive order.
66. Cancelled all White House tours
after sequestration—purportedly saving $18,000 per week—even though President
Obama had spent more than $1 million in tax money to golf with Tiger Woods one
weekend a few weeks before.
67. Adopted pro-union “ambush election” rules.
68. Pressured Ford to
pull an anti-auto-bailout TV ad.
69. Actively, aided
in George Zimmerman protests.
70. Tried to seize a privately owned
motel when guests used illegal drugs at the motel.
71. Shut down the Amber Alert website, while keeping up Let’s Move website, during the partial government shutdown.
72. Gave supervised
release to a convicted criminal (an alien here illegally) who later killed a
nun in a DUI.
73. Shut down an
Amish farm for selling fresh unpasteurized milk across state lines.
74. Spent $7 million per household in
“stimulus funds” to connect a few Montana households to the Internet.
75. Spent $205,075 in
“stimulus” funds to relocate a shrub that sells for $16.
76. Fired an inspector general after
investigating an $850,000 AmeriCorps grant received by a nonprofit run by
former NBA star and Obama supporter Kevin Johnson (now mayor of Sacramento).
