Obama on Path to Imperial Presidency | The American Spectator

When Republicans challenged Obamacare in the courts, they sought to overcome the hurdle of persuading the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a program passed by Congress and enacted by a president. The legal challenge by Texas and 25 other states to the Obama administration’s executive actions on immigration is different. Congress never passed a Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA, to grant legal status to some 5 million immigrants. President Barack Obama himself never signed what his aides call an “executive action”; Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson takes that honor. Thus, DAPA is a scary power grab that claims that the president — and even his bureaucrats — have the power to override duly enacted federal law. Federal Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Brownsville, Texas, was right to issue a temporary injunction against it.

The president does not have the right to overturn laws he does not like. The former constitutional law professor knew that in 2010. When asked why he had not pushed through a bill to legalize the presence of immigrants who came here illegally, Obama told Univision: “I am president; I am not king. I can’t do these things just by myself. We have a system of government that requires the Congress to work with the executive branch to make it happen.”

On November 20, when Obama announced the expansion of DAPA to include undocumented adults, he said, “To those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: Pass a bill.”

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Obama on Path to Imperial Presidency | The American Spectator