Jonathan H. Adler
The Washington Post
12/16/2014
Earlier Tuesday, a federal court in Pennsylvania declared aspects of President Obama’s executive actions on immigration policy unconstitutional.
According to the opinion by Judge Arthur Schwab, the president’s policy goes “beyond prosecutorial discretion” in that it provides a relatively rigid framework for considering applications for deferred action, thus obviating any meaningful case-by-case determination as prosecutorial discretion requires, and provides substantive rights to applicable individuals. As a consequence, Schwab concluded, the action exceeds the scope of executive authority.
This is the first judicial opinion to address Obama’s decision to expand deferred action for some individuals unlawfully present in the United States. [I’ve now posted the opinion here.]…
The article continues at The Washington Post.
Related: WOW: What a Federal Judge Just Wrote In a Ruling On Obama’s Executive ‘Amnesty’
…Judge Arthur J. Schwab, sitting in the western district of Pennsylvania, said presidents do have powers to use discretion in deciding how to enforce the law, but said Mr. Obama’s new policy goes well beyond that, setting up a full system for granting legal protections to broad groups of individuals. He said Mr. Obama writing laws [is] a power that’s reserved for Congress, not the president.
President Obama’s unilateral legislative action violates the separation of powers provided for in the United States Constitution as well as the Take Care Clause, and therefore is unconstitutional,’ Judge Schwab wrote.
The judge also said the policy allows illegal immigrants ‘to obtain substantive rights.’…
Obama Has Been Quietly Issuing ‘Executive Orders by Another Name’
…During the first six years in office, Obama has reportedly issued 198 presidential memoranda — more than any other president in history…
