Free Republic

With Congress on August recess after failing to agree on a plan to help fix the country’s pressing immigration problems, President Obama is poised to take matters in his own hands with executive actions. Whether the president will act without Congress on immigration and other pressing issues has as emerged as a thorny political question. Critics argue he is intent on violating the Constitution to achieve his political agenda, while supporters say he is being forced into action because of the Capitol Hill dysfunction. Speculation that Obama will act during August recess is not unfounded. He has issued at least...

As the administration talks about executive orders, even Democrats are saying: Halt! La Rochefoucauld said that hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. To which we might add that hypocrisy is the perpetual bedfellow of partisan politics. However, at a certain point in politics, hypocrisy can degenerate into self-righteous sophistry, in which the hypocrite declaims multiple, contradictory slogans in the same tired register of moral dudgeon. Though hypocrisies and bouts of calculated amnesia permeate the current political moment, few theoretical contortions have been as twisted as the Obama administration’s assertions about presidential power. Despite all his rhetoric on...

The current controversy over President Barack Obama's use of executive orders has many Republicans steamed and Democrats on the defensive. But has the President really issued more orders that his predecessors? In terms of executive orders, quality counts as much as quantity, and several significant Obama executive orders have some conservatives rallying around a lawsuit against the president, as well as threatening impeachment... The American Presidency Project keeps tabs on executive orders and their historical counterparts dating back to the George Washington administration. The presidents who used orders and proclamations the most, per year, were [Franklin] Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and...

... The GOP maintains that Obama has failed to faithfully execute the law, as is his constitutional duty. The Democrats say either "things are not as clear as you think" or "we're not doing anything Bush didn't do." And both sides talk about how many executive orders Obama has or has not issued. But this dispute cannot be resolved by counting the numbers of executive orders. This has been an interesting fight for political specialists to watch. It involves a serious discussion about the appropriate range of executive discretion. This is not a new fight, and the issue ought to...

President Obama is expected to take executive action to help illegal immigrants stay in the country while Congress is away on a five-week recess, pro-immigrant advocates said Saturday. Obama and his allies believe his authority to act without legislative approval has been strengthened by congressional gridlock over comprehensive reform. “I’ve heard not to expect anything until toward the end of August. They’ve been listening to suggestions by advocates over what could be done. The president has yet to make a decision about what steps he plans to take,” said Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin...

President Barack Obama insisted for years that he had absolutely no legal authority — none whatsoever, zero, zilch — to slow deportations on a broad scale. Forget everything he’s said. Obama’s pledge to use his executive powers by the end of the summer marked both a dramatic reversal in rhetoric and a major strategic shift on immigration. The president is no longer emphasizing his own powerlessness but rather his determination “to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress.” [SNIP] The shift could be used by critics as an example of Obama saying...

Leadership: All year long, President Obama has bragged that if Congress didn't act on his legislative agenda, he'd do so on his own. But when it comes to the border crisis, he says his hands are tied. Back in January, Obama labeled 2014 a "year of action." He said, "I've got a pen and I've got a phone" and promised to use them to "take executive actions and administrative actions" if Congress failed to get things done. The White House even issued a "year of action" report this week, which includes "40 actions" Obama has taken (not counting the dozens...

The heartstrings are tugged by an article where a mother in Utah is not being deported, it is being delayed, in the hopes she can stay in the country long enough, after savior Obama swoops in to save her “in the wake of his announcement that he’ll act on his own to address immigration problems.”

John Boehner’s plan, in which he proposes to sue President Barack Obama for violating the Constitutional role of the presidency, is important and brilliant. I am an attorney, with a keen interest in both politics and law. I have read and studied the U.S. Supreme Court precedents in question. Pundits with incorrect analyses make three wrong objections: (1) Congress does not have legal “standing” to be the plaintiff to bring a successful lawsuit. (2) The Courts are reluctant to get involved in disputes between Congress and the Executive Branch. (3) Congress has other tools and Boehner is off-base using a...

President Barack Obama has aggressively touted his use of executive authority over the last several months as he aims to cement his legacy and push his policies now and even beyond his presidency. The president's in-your-face attitude was punctuated Wednesday by his sarcastic challenge to Republicans: "So sue me." The emphasis on executive actions is a shift for Obama. In 2010, after Republicans won control of Congress, the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington wrote a detailed memo urging Obama to use executive orders on a wide range of issues. But late last year, Obama hired...

President Obama on Tuesday asked his Cabinet to help him find more ways to use his executive powers. “You’ve already seen the power of some of our executive actions making a real difference for ordinary families,” Obama said at a White House meting. “We’re going to have to be creative about how we can make real progress.” The president is increasingly relying on executive orders and regulatory moves to move his agenda, despite opposition from House Republicans, who have threatened to sue him over his executive actions, and the Supreme Court, which ruled last week that Obama’s recess appointments were...

Video - special report with Jonathan Turly on SCOTUS ruling.

President Obama, tired of waiting for Congress to act on immigration reform, is currently exploring ways to address issues with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. During an interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained that the Obama was getting impatient with Congress. “[W]e’re not just going to sit around and wait interminably for Congress,” he explained. “We’ve been waiting a year already. The president has tasked his Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson with reviewing what options are available to the president, what is at his disposal using his executive authority to try...

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner announced he will be filing a lawsuit in the coming days against the White House in an effort to stop President Obama's continuing executive overreach. "This is not about impeachment -- it's about him faithfully executing the laws of this country," Boehner said during the announcement. Here's more background from Roll Call: The lawsuit could set up a significant test of constitutional checks and balances, with the legislative branch suing the executive branch for ignoring its mandates, and the judiciary branch deciding the outcome. Boehner told the House Republican Conference during...

Read this information all the way to the end and draw your own conclusions! This is astounding and serious for us all to be aware of. So, the next time someone says, "oh, all Presidents issue executive orders", enlighten them! For the SHOCK of your life, take 1 minute to comprehend what you read below. During our lifetimes, all Presidents have issued Executive Orders. For various reasons, some have issued more than others. These things will directly affect u.s. all, in years to come. Question is: Do YOU care enough to send this, 'shocking info,' to people you love and...

An heirloom bronze elephant with ivory tusks, great-grandmother's piano with ivory keys, a vintage ivory chess set or an antique silver teapot with a small ivory inset in the handle to keep it cool may be "endangered" by proposed laws that could be in place sometime in June. Buying, selling or importing ivory from recently killed African elephants already is illegal and has been for about 25 years. But an executive order issued by President Barack Obama would extend the ban to include all antique ivory harvested from elephants that died before 1914. There would be a law forbidding sales,...

President Obama has announced a series of executive actions to reduce carbon pollution, prepare the U.S. for the impacts of climate change, and lead international efforts to address global climate change. [...] On May 6, the Administration released the Third U.S. National Climate Assessment, the most authoritative and comprehensive source of scientific information to date about climate-change impacts across all U.S. regions and on critical sectors of the economy. The report, a key deliverable of President Obama's Climate Action Plan, confirms that climate change is not a distant threat — it's affecting us now.

The White House will be “picking up the pace on executive actions,” as Congress focuses its efforts on the newly formed select committee investigating Benghazi, senior Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer declared Tuesday. In an op-ed for The Huffington Post, Pfeiffer argued that congressional Republicans are not interested in engaging on the economy, instead spending time “obsessively trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act” and “ginning up politically motivated investigations.” “Given this dynamic, President Obama has only one option — use every ounce of his authority to unilaterally improve economic security,” Pfeiffer said. “Next week, as congressional Republicans spend their energy...

President Obama is preparing to use “the pen and phone” to push more solar power and energy efficiency measures. He wants to deal with global warming but not congressional Republicans. Obama will order executive agencies to push a slew of new programs to promote solar power, green jobs training and subsidize investing in energy efficient appliances and equipment. Obama will also announce a plan to complete solar panel installations on the roof of the White House. The president will make his announcement Friday at a Wal-Mart in Mountain View, California and outline 300 “private and public sector commitments” to reduce...

He is regularly briefed on scientific reports on the issue, including a national climate assessment that he will help showcase Tuesday. He is using his executive authority to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other sources, and is moving ahead with stricter fuel-efficiency standards for the heaviest trucks. “He’s spending money, in my view, in the wrong place,” Duncan said in an interview. “He needs to be focused on the economy, and the balance has gotten out of hand.”