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Should a POTUS be able to refuse to enforce a law?

Skeptic Bob

Skeptic Bob

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Immigration
Marijuana laws
Russian sanctions

Off the top of my head these are some of the laws our two most recent presidents have refused to enforce to varying degrees.

This isn’t about whether or not you agree with the laws or not. Most here probably agree with some of the ones I listed and disagree with others. This is about to what extent a President should be able to refuse to enforce laws passed by Congress. It is certainly impossible to enforce all laws equally due to limited resources. It is why things like prosecutorial discretion exist. But should a president be able to ignore a law completely as a matter of policy?

It is all good and well to support a president who ignores laws we disagree with but that opens the door for them to ignore laws that we support as well.
 
Skeptic Bob said:
Immigration
Marijuana laws
Russian sanctions

Off the top of my head these are some of the laws our two most recent presidents have refused to enforce to varying degrees.

This isn’t about whether or not you agree with the laws or not. Most here probably agree with some of the ones I listed and disagree with others. This is about to what extent a President should be able to refuse to enforce laws passed by Congress. It is certainly impossible to enforce all laws equally due to limited resources. It is why things like prosecutorial discretion exist. But should a president be able to ignore a law completely as a matter of policy?

It is all good and well to support a president who ignores laws we disagree with but that opens the door for them to ignore laws that we support as well.
Click to expand...

Yes. It kinda sucks but not all laws demand equal attention.
 
Skeptic Bob said:
Immigration
Marijuana laws
Russian sanctions

Off the top of my head these are some of the laws our two most recent presidents have refused to enforce to varying degrees.

This isn’t about whether or not you agree with the laws or not. Most here probably agree with some of the ones I listed and disagree with others. This is about to what extent a President should be able to refuse to enforce laws passed by Congress. It is certainly impossible to enforce all laws equally due to limited resources. It is why things like prosecutorial discretion exist. But should a president be able to ignore a law completely as a matter of policy?

It is all good and well to support a president who ignores laws we disagree with but that opens the door for them to ignore laws that we support as well.
Click to expand...

Presidents must have discretion, WE THE PEOPLE must judge how well they use it, and exact a charge on those who use it poorly.
 
Skeptic Bob said:
Immigration
Marijuana laws
Russian sanctions

Off the top of my head these are some of the laws our two most recent presidents have refused to enforce to varying degrees.

This isn’t about whether or not you agree with the laws or not. Most here probably agree with some of the ones I listed and disagree with others. This is about to what extent a President should be able to refuse to enforce laws passed by Congress. It is certainly impossible to enforce all laws equally due to limited resources. It is why things like prosecutorial discretion exist. But should a president be able to ignore a law completely as a matter of policy?

It is all good and well to support a president who ignores laws we disagree with but that opens the door for them to ignore laws that we support as well.
Click to expand...

My stance is the same regardless of the law or who the POTUS is. A POTUS should enforce the laws as written and passed by Congress and signed by the President. That is the purpose of the Executive Branch. And not having the resources is not a valid excuse. Get the resources or find a way to do it with current resources.

For instance, we have the resources to identify marijuana plants by satellite if we wanted to. Do so and then burn the crap out of them. Black ops mission if necessary. (note that I'm actually in favor of making MJ legal...just making a point is all)

For those that don't think we can spot MJ plants you might want to look at this: Satellite imagery to detect and monitor weeds If they can do this for agronomists then I'm sure it can be used to detect MJ.
 
Kal'Stang said:
My stance is the same regardless of the law or who the POTUS is. A POTUS should enforce the laws as written and passed by Congress and signed by the President. That is the purpose of the Executive Branch. And not having the resources is not a valid excuse. Get the resources or find a way to do it with current resources.

For instance, we have the resources to identify marijuana plants by satellite if we wanted to. Do so and then burn the crap out of them. Black ops mission if necessary. (note that I'm actually in favor of making MJ legal...just making a point is all)

For those that don't think we can spot MJ plants you might want to look at this: Satellite imagery to detect and monitor weeds If they can do this for agronomists then I'm sure it can be used to detect MJ.
Click to expand...

Have you taken note of the size of the lawbook, and of how poorly the laws are written on purpose in order the expand the discretion of the prosecutor? It is impossible for many reasons to seriously enforce all the laws.

There are consequences to massively expanding the criminality of routine modern life as we have done, for instance I heard today of plan to make it a crime with a $500 fine to lie about the credentials of a service animal...... this is abuse of the law.

WE HAVE GOT TO RELEARN HOW TO PRIORITIZE
 
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Skeptic Bob said:
Immigration
Marijuana laws
Russian sanctions

It is all good and well to support a president who ignores laws we disagree with but that opens the door for them to ignore laws that we support as well.
Click to expand...

Such is the problem with the hipocritic Republicans in Congress. They are doing EXACTLY what they "railed" against Obama for doing.

NO President can be above the law or take discretionary views of the law. Otherwise, we might as well just return to a Monarchy.
 
Kal'Stang said:
My stance is the same regardless of the law or who the POTUS is. A POTUS should enforce the laws as written and passed by Congress and signed by the President. That is the purpose of the Executive Branch. And not having the resources is not a valid excuse. Get the resources or find a way to do it with current resources.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure this is realistic. The executive branch has very little power to get its own resources. Especially during the time when Congress is of a different party than the president.

And I absolutely reject that the executive can 100% enforce the laws with its current resources. Some ordering of priorities has to be made. It's easy to say that they should just find a way to do it with current resources, but I don't think that's practical.

For instance, we have the resources to identify marijuana plants by satellite if we wanted to. Do so and then burn the crap out of them. Black ops mission if necessary. (note that I'm actually in favor of making MJ legal...just making a point is all)

For those that don't think we can spot MJ plants you might want to look at this: Satellite imagery to detect and monitor weeds If they can do this for agronomists then I'm sure it can be used to detect MJ.
Click to expand...

Since that mainly measures vegetation density in areas I'm not 100% sure it would work to detect specific crops of marijuana automatically. But that definitely wouldn't help identify the great amount of cannabis that is grown indoor, of which for instance all legal marijuana in California is required to be, as well as much of the illegal crop for obvious reasons. Nor would it help at all with the imported illegal marijuana, which comprises at least two thirds of it in the US. [source]
 
Skeptic Bob said:
Immigration
Marijuana laws
Russian sanctions

Off the top of my head these are some of the laws our two most recent presidents have refused to enforce to varying degrees.

This isn’t about whether or not you agree with the laws or not. Most here probably agree with some of the ones I listed and disagree with others. This is about to what extent a President should be able to refuse to enforce laws passed by Congress. It is certainly impossible to enforce all laws equally due to limited resources. It is why things like prosecutorial discretion exist. But should a president be able to ignore a law completely as a matter of policy?

It is all good and well to support a president who ignores laws we disagree with but that opens the door for them to ignore laws that we support as well.
Click to expand...
You mean like Obama instructing ICE to ignore immigration law?
 
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