{"id":17845,"date":"2014-01-30T05:45:34","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T10:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=17845"},"modified":"2014-01-29T19:11:22","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T00:11:22","slug":"the-president-and-the-rule-of-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/01\/the-president-and-the-rule-of-law\/","title":{"rendered":"The President and the Rule of Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

During his State of the Union address, President Obama said that because Congress keeps thwarting his agenda, he will advance his positions about immigration, the environment, the economy, gun control, and other of his priorities by issuing executive orders.<\/p>\n

He has already been doing that sort of thing.\u00a0 Conservatives don\u2019t like Obamacare, so they might be glad that the President has changed and delayed its terms.\u00a0 But by what authority does he just alter a duly-ratified law?\u00a0 The president is supposed to execute the laws, not create them or change the ones that he doesn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

Quite a few people are complaining about the gridlock in the legislative branch, and applauding President Obama\u2019s resolve to \u201cget things done.\u201d\u00a0 But the Constitution has built in checks and balances for an important reason.\u00a0 When a president finds himself checked and balanced, he can\u2019t just ignore the other branches of government.\u00a0 To do so would be to violate the Constitution and usurp the rule of law.<\/p>\n

\n

From In State of the Union, Obama vows to expand opportunity, with or without Congress \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

President Obama sought Tuesday to restore public confidence in his presidency after a dispiriting year, pledging to use his White House authority with new force to advance an agenda that Congress has largely refused to support.<\/p>\n

In his fifth prime-time State of the Union address, Obama made clear that instead of trying to fix the mess in Washington, he was now promising to find ways around it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica does not stand still,\u201d Obama said, \u201cand neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n

For most of the speech. . . Obama emphasized that he will no longer be content to wait for Congress\u2019s approval after a bruising 2013 in which it rarely came. He challenged lawmakers to work with him to achieve breakthroughs on large-scale initiatives to overhaul immigration laws and provide more benefits to American workers, including a higher minimum wage and extension of long-term unemployment insurance.<\/p>\n

But he also sketched out more than a dozen ways in which he intends to use executive powers to try to boost the economy on his own. . . .<\/p>\n

When Washington\u2019s fighting \u201cprevents us from carrying out even the most basic functions of our democracy \u2014 when our differences shut down government or threaten the full faith and credit of the United States \u2014 then we are not doing right by the American people,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During his State of the Union address, President Obama said that because Congress keeps thwarting his agenda, he will advance his positions about immigration, the environment, the economy, gun control, and other of his priorities by issuing executive orders. He has already been doing that sort of thing.\u00a0 Conservatives don\u2019t like Obamacare, so they might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,26],"tags":[568,1787,2987],"class_list":["post-17845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-law","tag-constitutional-law","tag-president-barack-obama","tag-state-of-the-union-address-2014"],"yoast_head":"\nThe President and the Rule of Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"During his State of the Union address, President Obama said that because Congress keeps thwarting his agenda, he will advance his positions about\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/01\/the-president-and-the-rule-of-law\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The President and the Rule of Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During his State of the Union address, President Obama said that because Congress keeps thwarting his agenda, he will advance his positions about\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/01\/the-president-and-the-rule-of-law\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-30T10:45:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-01-30T00:11:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/01\/the-president-and-the-rule-of-law\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/01\/the-president-and-the-rule-of-law\/\",\"name\":\"The President and the Rule of Law\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-30T10:45:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-01-30T00:11:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"During his State of the Union address, President Obama said that because Congress keeps thwarting his agenda, he will advance his positions about\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/01\/the-president-and-the-rule-of-law\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/01\/the-president-and-the-rule-of-law\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/01\/the-president-and-the-rule-of-law\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The President and the Rule of Law\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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