I was hoping last week’s judiciary hearing on the president’s constitutional duty to faithfully execute the law was the first step by Republicans to finally do something about Obama’s lawlessness.
At the hearing, Professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law School said, “I really have great trepidation about where we are headed because we are creating a new system, here – something which is not what was designed – we have this rising fourth branch…the center of gravity is shifting, and that makes it unstable, and within that system we have the rise of an uber-Presidency. There could be no greater danger for individual liberty. I really think the framers would be horrified by this shift because everything they dedicated themselves to was in creating this orbital balance and we’ve lost it.”
It looks like 30 House members have taken Professor Turley’s warning about the dangers of Obama’s “uber presidency” to heart.
The Weekly Standard reports that Congressman Tom Rice (R-SC) is sponsoring a resolution in the House directing the legislative body “to bring a civil action for declaratory or injunctive relief to challenge certain policies and actions taken by the executive branch.”
In other words, Rep. Rice wants to take President Obama to court for not faithfully executing the laws.
“President Obama has adopted a practice of picking and choosing which laws he wants to enforce. In most cases, his laws of choice conveniently coincide with his Administration’s political agenda. Our Founding Fathers created the Executive Branch to implement and enforce the laws written by Congress and vested this power in the President. However, President Obama has chosen to ignore some of the laws written by Congress and implemented by preceding Presidents,” Rice wrote in a letter to fellow House members to ask them to co-sponsor this resolution.
The resolution alleges that President Obama and his administration have abused executive power and failed to execute the laws of the United States faithfully.
Thus, the resolution calls for “CIVIL ACTION.–The House of Representatives shall bring a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for declaratory or injunctive relief to challenge any of the following policies or actions:
“This resolution allows the House of Representatives to bring legal action against the Executive Branch and challenge recent actions, inactions, and policies.”
The 30 congressmen who have signed on, (and I hope this list grows substantially in number in the coming weeks) are:
Bachmann (MN-06), Bridenstine (OK-01), Chaffetz (UT-03), J. Duncan (SC-03), DeSantis (FL-06), Franks (AZ-08), Gowdy (SC-04), Harris (MD-01), Lamborn (CO-05), LaMalfa (CA-01), Marino (PA-10), McClintock (CA-04), Meadows (NC-11), Nunnelee (MS-01), Pittenger (NC-09), Posey (FL-08), Tom Price (GA-06), Ribble (WI-08), Salmon (AZ-05), Sanford (SC-01), Schweikert (AZ-06), Stewart (UT-02), Stockman (TX-36), Walberg (MI-07), Weber (TX-14), Wenstrup (OH-02), Williams (TX-25), Joe Wilson (SC-02), and Yoho FL-03.
At the hearing, last week, one of the co sponsors, Judiciary Committee Congressman Trent Franks (AZ) listed a number of what he saw as Obama’s abuse of powers: