Posted on 07/28/2014 2:45:19 AM PDT by markomalley
Yep, and there’s no law that can be written that can prevent a president’s constitutional power.
I think we’re screwed on this one. Zero recourse.
Yes, just as I thought. Obama doesn’t need congress to grand pardon, and amnesty can be a synonym for reprieve or the result of reprieve.
It was probably part of what got Johnson impeached, but there will no impeachment of the first black president. It simply won’t happen, whether or not it should happen.
And we have to wonder if he will make that pardon for all who have or WILL enter illegally. That could only be rescinded by a future president.
At what point do we Americans decide we have nothing left to lose and respond accordingly. Vigilante style.
Remember the irate town hall meetings where citizens lambasted the Democrats’ plan of “free health care”?
Hugely unpopular, even more so now, but they rammed it through anyway, making themselves exempt of course.
Same thing here and the GOP eunuchs will do nothing.
CW II? As ‘Charlie Waits’ put it, “Some things are worse than dying.”
And I’m fed up with tyranny.
We have never before had a president who was so anti-American and brazen about it before. Obama’s going to do it. The only question is how will the 300 million real Americans react to it?
Ho Hum or a call to arms?
His thinking?
I imagine he thinks that he’s losing the senate anyway, and the House is already in Rino hands, and he’ll not be convicted for exercising a constitutional power. It can hardly be a ‘high crime or misdemeanor’ to exercise authority granted you by the constitution.
So, he’s a ‘lame duck’ for 2 more years. He’ll play golf and simply not care. Vetoing a bill takes a minute, and it’s extremely hard to override.
The media will turn the final 18 months in a 24/7 dialogue about the candidates running in primaries, and it will pass out of the news cycle, and that will be the end of it.
America will not rise up.
America will scale down from Applebees to Arbys and continue in their fog.
You know there is only one way that can be accomplished.
I will not speculate on what that way might be, but I will support all appropriate efforts to restore constitutional government and the rule of law in our country.
I have thought about this issue and it is true that Obama has the power to grant pardons and reprieves, but his power is limited to pardoning and granting reprieves for crimes against the United States. He could stop the prosecution of illegal aliens for entering into the United States and even for breaking such laws as working without a green card or even for using false identification.
However, he does not have the power to grant anyone the right to continue to break the law after amnesty is granted, nor does he have the power or authority to change the status of an illegal alien to a legal resident. He can pardon people for breaking the law, but he can’t unilaterally change the law.
In other words, all he can do is stop the criminal proceedings. He can’t stop the civil proceedings such as deportations based on status defined as unlawful under current law.
So if he grants a blanket amnesty, that will really have no effect on the status of illegal aliens other than to prohibit them from being prosecuted for specific criminal violations done before the amnesty.
Those are all good points, but I think there’s a difference between reprieves and pardons. The constitution says he has both powers. The pardon takes away the vulnerability to prosecution by altogether taking away the crime. The reprieve — when reprieve is defined as relief — means that he can grant them relief. What relief can he grant them that would best fit his agenda?
Work status.
And, as you have so carefully pointed out in the past, once status is granted, some court will find it a violation of our laws to have a group that is in some kind of limbo status — allowed to be in our country but now allowed to file citizenship paperwork. Allowed to work, but not to participate. Some court will find that the equivalent of servitude.
I do not believe Obama has the Constitutional authority to grant anyone a specific right to work absent them obtaining a valid green card under the existing laws. Now they could become eligible to apply if somehow their status was changed from illegal alien to invited guest. But I don’t really see that as implied in the pardon clause. Only Congress has the power to change the laws and actually grant a wholesale change in status.
If Obama tries it, and I am certain he will, it will be challenged in court. What happens there is anybody’s guess.
I’m not trying to sound pessimistic; I just managing to accomplish that anyway.
I agree with everything you write.
My only holdback is on the definition of the word “reprieve”. It has a secondary meaning of ‘relief’. Whatever it means, I assume the Founders intended it to mean something different than the word ‘pardon’. They generally did not toss around synonyms for hope of writing engaging prose.
If the courts see ‘reprieve’ as ‘relief’, then it means Obama CAN suspend such laws in the case of those he has pardoned.
And we already know that pardon means that a convicted criminal has had those laws, and a legal conviction, set aside.
I’m beginning to think this ‘pardon’ power is a mistake on the Founder’s part. Ford/Nixon, Clinton/Rich, and I’m sure others. Nothing to brag about.
I think that the word “reprieve” would not be a sufficient word to change a person’s immigration status from illegal alien to green card holder absent the person going through the normal hoops that legal aliens have to go through. A reprieve is generally used to commute sentences after conviction and a pardon is used to undo a conviction or prevent a prosecution for an offense already committed.
Obama can try this, but it will be heard in the courts. This would be an unprecedented usurpation of legislative authority
Let’s say he does it. Imagine that he pardons all illegals, and those who hire them, and he says they’re free to stay and work, but must apply for status.
Will someone take him to court? What will happen when they try to take an employer or an illegal to court?
It will be utter chaos.
And he’ll be gone before it’s over.
Ask Speaker Boehner or minority leader McConnell.
Disgusting gutless poltroons worrying about their power positions within the party and what the NYT will write about them while the COUNTRY BURNS.
Here in northern NJ you’d hear Hindi, Korean, and Ordu as well. Mostly foreigners shopping, and they’re smart with their money; our malls are hurting badly.
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