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