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acroyearTales from the Trail » Blog Archive » Bush’s laws will be scrutinized if I become president, Obama says | Blogs | Reuters.com:
Now, Obama can look and and rescind existing executive orders (which he mentioned), and he can certainly make statements that undo signing statements and direct his departments to enforce the laws as written, but any other action against existing law, other than to propose to congress to retract (which with a Democratic congress, should be easy) or file lawsuits to get the courts to look at them, is itself unconstitutional.
Should he judge a congressionally-passed law unconstitutional and hold his departments to not enforce it without taking any other action to get it undone, it makes him no better than Bush and his tradition of signing statements.
However, I would like to see which executive orders and laws are on his "short list" before I hold out any more hope.
If elected president, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama said one of the first things he wants to do is ensure the constitutionality of all the laws and executive orders passed while Republican President George W. Bush has been in office.Except, of course, that it's not the President's job to judge constitutionality of a law except through 1 thing: the Veto pen. He has no other recourse.
Those that don’t pass muster will be overturned, he said.
During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama — a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School — was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.
“I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution,” said Obama
Now, Obama can look and and rescind existing executive orders (which he mentioned), and he can certainly make statements that undo signing statements and direct his departments to enforce the laws as written, but any other action against existing law, other than to propose to congress to retract (which with a Democratic congress, should be easy) or file lawsuits to get the courts to look at them, is itself unconstitutional.
Should he judge a congressionally-passed law unconstitutional and hold his departments to not enforce it without taking any other action to get it undone, it makes him no better than Bush and his tradition of signing statements.
However, I would like to see which executive orders and laws are on his "short list" before I hold out any more hope.
