Obama's actions lawful, top legal scholars say-

By Justin Sink - 11/20/14 10:40 PM EST

The White House worked to bolster the legal case for President Obama’s immigration action Thursday night, releasing a letter from a group of prominent legal scholars arguing that the president’s moves were within his legal authorities.

The group included three law professors from the University of Chicago — where the president taught constitutional law before his election — as well as Columbia University president Lee Bollinger, and renowned Harvard constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe.

“While we differ among ourselves on many issues relating to Presidential power and immigration policy, we are all of the view that these actions are lawful,” the professors write. “They are exercises of prosecutorial discretion that are consistent with governing law and with the policies that Congress has expressed in the statutes that it has enacted.”
Republicans have blasted the president’s moves, which would extend deportation relief and work permits to as many as 5 million illegal immigrants, as unlawful and unconstitutional.

“President Obama’s executive amnesty violates the laws Congress has passed in order to create and implement laws Congress has refused to pass,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said in a statement.

“This amnesty plan was rejected by the American people’s Congress,” Sessions continued. “By refusing to carry out the laws of the United States in order to make his own, the President is endangering our entire Constitutional order.”

But the law professors argue that the “setting of removal priorities and the use of deferred action” had been “used many times by the executive branch under presidents of both parties, and Congress has explicitly and implicitly endorsed their use.”

Separately, the Department of Justice on Thursday released the memo it prepared for the president on the legality of his proposed executive actions.

The Justice Department concludes that the program, which will assist parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, would be “permissible exercises of [the Department of Homeland Security’s] discretion to enforce the immigration law.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/224964-top-legal-scholars-back-obamas-lawful-actions


I find it remarkable that Republicans/conservatives didn't think that the President might actually consult with legal scholars and lawyers to see if what he plans is legal and would find a great number that agreed with him it was.

I suppose their Obama hatred just blinded them into thinking "He'll commit a crime and think he can get away with it"....when the President JUST MIGHT (and obviously did) go to legal experts to see if it was legal and thus CRUSH (Mitch McConnell's favorite word) one of his opponents' talking points right out of the box.

Notice in his whine, that Jeff Sessions doesn't say anything SPECIFIC that he claims the President is doing that is illegal or un-Constitutional.

 

It's not legal. The president said that it exceeds his authority several times over the past few years.

I am far from an Obama hater, but if the president had the authority to do this, he wouldn't have said it was beyond his authority to do it in 2011.

 

Bush discussed Torture with "scholars" as well and claimed it was legal.. What is your point? Care to share the opinions of "scholars" that are Progressive biased?

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Pssst you are supposed to forget that

 

Law professors know the action is lawful. GOP knows it's lawful. The GOP has to say it is "unconstitutional" to defer their inaction.

Sen. Hatch is a joke saying that this action will make it harder for GOP to work with the President...WTF?

 

Why did the president say that this was beyond his authority in 2011? Was he ignorant or has his authority changed in some way?

 

More than several, 25 times during speeches. What a great Constitutional Scholar eh? Must have read it was OK in the papers.

 

Alberto Gonzales was far from a constitutional scholar. The US Supreme court ruled against Bush on torture. If the court finds this Presidential action unconstitutional sobeit. They have yet to rule the DACA EO unconstitutional.

 

Of course they are. He is a lawyer. He knows how to bend the laws to get want he wants.

 

Lawful or not, we're getting ourselves five millions hard working, law abiding gardeners, taco makers, window washers, governesses, cabbage pickers... Who could be against that?

 

Legal scholars from the University of Chicago ... eh ?
That's like saying you can Indict a ham sandwich but only on the Sabbath.
get it. The Sabbath is After hours.At sundown on a Friday.

 

I am sure a state Supreme Court Justice is versed in the Constitution....

And he is now teaching Constitutional law. ( not that i agree with the torture memo btw)

 

Sen. Hatch is a joke? Was he too in 57 States?

 

What no Porters or baggage handlers.

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If one would just bother to watch the movie - The Glass Wall - {1953}
it is pretty straightforward. You Control Immigration. That's the whole Idea
behind an Immigration law and an Immigration Dept.

 

Letters from 'scholars' don't mean (*)(*)(*)(*). Article 1 section 8 (4th item) is where it is written. That's all the proof needed. People should look it up. (Scholars should look it up too. ) ...and Obama taught Constitutional Law.... get your tuition back... you was robbed!! What he is doing is illegal.

 

Forgetting not who Obama's Favorite Law Professor was.
one ... Derrick Bell,a staunch practitioner of Critical Race Theory.
As was the Reverend Wright { The Obama's disgraced Pastor from Trinity Baptist in Chicago }

 

You have your opinion....but what is your legal education?

 

ah, you're not happy with stereotyping? It's true. As for them being here well yes, but drain on this country they will be to much bigger degree, than before.

And my kids are all grown up and are fine, thank you. Only one is Liberal and only because she's 19. Give it few more years

 

And naturally what President Obama did last night is the legal and MORAL "equivalent of torture".

 

Obama was actually a " visiting " law professor.He was offered a tenureship but
turned it down.We can't even find out what law books Obama reguired for any
courses he taught.

 

I am using the President's own opinion. I think I heard he is a lawyer who went to Harvard.

Did he not say that this was beyond his authority in 2011? Was he lying or just ignorant?

 

Notice Sessions couldn't point to anything SPECIFIC that was illegal or un-Constitutional.

Despite his obvious genius.

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So anytime a Republican or Rightwingers says "It's clearly illegal".....they are wrong. It's NOT "clearly" illegal, is it?

 

Nice strawman. Point went right over your head though. Not surprised in the least.

 

Did he say previously...that what he proposed last night...was illegal or un-Constitutional? Precisely?

 

He said that it was beyond his authority. People were asking him to suspend deportation for people not included in DACA. He said that it was beyond his authority to do so.

Yes, he said it was beyond his authority. I am not interested in digging up proof for you, because I am comfortable with where I stand on this issue, and don't care where you stand really.

 

I think he just forget a ? at the end of his post.
Then again ... ballbusting liberals forgit a lotta stuff.
Like being in the Right.