Jonathan Turley: Congress ‘Must Act’ Against Obama’s Overreach Or Face ‘Self-Destruction’

From today, here is a sober warning from one of Obama's own supporters...



Jonathan Turley

Jonathan Turley: Congress ‘Must Act’ Against Obama’s Overreach Or Face ‘Self-Destruction’

Liberal law professor Jonathan Turley warned a panel of lawmakers that they “must act” in support of a lawsuit against President Barack Obama for executive overreach or face “self-destruction” as a deliberative body.

Turley appeared as a witness for the House Rules Committee on Wednesday as that panel considered advancing a proposed lawsuit that would check the White House’s recent moves to cut out Congress on issues like health-care reform, immigration and drug policy.

The George Washington University law professor — who supports many of President Obama’s policies but opposes their unilateral implementation — expressed his support for the lawsuit and his belief that Congress, as a coequal branch of government, has the standing to sue to presidency.

“Our system is changing,” he warned, “and this body is the one branch that must act if we are to reverse those changes. We are seeing the emergence of a different model of government, a model long-ago rejected by the framers.”

He continues:

“A dominant presidency has occurred with very little congressional opposition,” he noted. “Indeed, when President Obama pledged to circumvent Congress, he received rapturous applause from the very body that he was proposing to make practically irrelevant. Now many members are contesting the right of this institution to even be heard in federal court.”

“This body is moving from self-loathing to self-destruction in a system that is in crisis,” the law professor charged. “The president’s pledge to effectively govern alone is alarming, and what is most alarming is his ability to fulfill that pledge.

When a president can govern alone, he can become a government unto himself,” he warned, “which is precisely the danger the framers sought to avoid. What we’re witnessing today is one of the greatest crises that members of this body will face.”

Finally an honest broker from the left who sees the growing peril of Obama and his administration.

Any bets if he will be heard by anyone else on the left????

Well the Potus did give the green light.

Obama to Republicans: 'So sue me'

Can't blame the right or the left for taking up the Potus on his 'executive order'.

a reply to: loam

So frustrating that we have lost so much as a country...I'm of the mind that I don't care who's in office, just do a good job...I don't care about race or gender, just do right thing...and that goes for all the dopes in the Senate and the House.

Is this the same lawsuit that John Boehner is supporting?

The one where he's suing Obama for not implementing something that they voted to repeal like..a million times?

Mind you I agree the executive branch has overreached in a variety of places. It certainly needs reigning in.

~Tenth

a reply to: chrismarco

Indeed it is frustrating to watch the continuing decline of our nation. I just never believed it would come from within.

It looks like that by the time the electorate finally wakes up, it will be too late.

The world my child will live in will be a very different one from the one I knew....

a reply to: tothetenthpower

I think he should be sued for Benghazi,VA, and IRS, and numerous other examples.

Sued, or impeached.

He campaigned on the last guy was bad, but the current guy makes the last guy look like an amateur.



Senator Obama would agree with Turley.

a reply to: neo96

While I have said Obama was a charlatan from the beginning, I still reserved some room for hope that I might be wrong.

Just goes to show anyone can be had at any age.

another news story that does nothing but give hope.

Not only are we on our way to hell in the handbasket...we were dumb enough to vote for that handbasket in the first place.

originally posted by: loam
a reply to: neo96

While I have said Obama was a charlatan from the beginning, I still reserved some room for hope that I might be wrong.

Just goes to show anyone can be had at any age.

None of us wanted to be right.

The proof is in the pudding for the world to see.

Turns out we ARE.

The man is full of snip.

I agree with Mr. Turley without reservation. Over the last several decades, presidents have been, regardless of their intentions (and party affiliation), assuming more power than they were ever intended to possess. This isn't simply a matter of what the framers believed — the concept that no one person should wield so much power is fundamental and not subjective to circumstances which change with the passage of time.

Just because the Congress, under the deliberately imposed weight of obstructionism, has become ineffectual does not mean that the President has any right nor mandate to do what they will not or cannot do. It's a shame that the same group that has orchestrated the dysfunctionality of the 111th, 112th and now 113th Congress is behind the suit, but not all things that are right and just are born of worthy causes.

It would be beneficial for the country if this would garner bipartisan support not as an indictment of Obama's policy or an affirmation of conservative policy, but rather in terms of revesting in Congress, the power it should alone possess. After giving this some more consideration, I don't think that this is a reasonable expectation.

Is the particular issue that Boehner proposes suing over really an egregious overreach? They'd have to prove that the actions (or in this case.. inaction?) of the President aren't simply a good faith effort, within the scope of his authority, to implement the ACA and constitutes harm done to the House as an institution. Would the court's opinion actually serve to bolster future instances of more definitive executive overreach?

a reply to: neo96

I think he should be sued for Benghazi, VA, and IRS, and numerous other examples.

Sued on what grounds?

originally posted by: loam
a reply to: chrismarco

Indeed it is frustrating to watch the continuing decline of our nation. I just never believed it would come from within.

It looks like that by the time the electorate finally wakes up, it will be too late.

The world my child will live in will be a very different one from the one I knew....

You made me think of Lincoln's quote:

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves"


Now then, if only Congress will listen to what Turley said & do something about it before it's too late

Prof.Turley makes a very valid point concerning the credibility of congess in future if they fail to act now.Without them the presidency may just as well a dictatorship like N.Korea.

So another lawsuit gunning for obama, i think not. that would open a can of worms that all the future presidents would have to go through.

Oh and to people saying obamas is the worst president eva, close fox news, go to your local library, and read the history of the USA, i can name you a few that where leaps and bounds worst than obama.

Cue the im obamas secret love child crowd

a reply to: dukeofjive696969

So you must like the way things are going then?