MinuteMinutiae

Do you believe that President Obama's unilateral executive action which changed immigration law were constitutional acts?

If a law orders a president to do something, can the president not do it? Or is he required to take care to faithfully execute the laws passed by Congress?

What Article II power did President Obama use to change standing law without congressional action?

You refer to the "Dreamer's Act" but that's actually only a bill, it was never passed, presented, or signed; why do you refer to it as the Dreamer's Act? Isn't that misleading?

Edit: Thanks for the gold anonymous Redditor!

Edit 2: It is a shame that Natalia Segermeister has failed or refused to respond to my questions despite it being pretty early on in this AMA and being the most upvoted post the whole time. Perhaps she will later today.

To everyone who is calling this set of questions hostile: Asking critical questions, even if leading, is not a hostile act. I oppose expanding POTUS power, I oppose misleading propaganda, I oppose misinformation. President Trump extended DACA, he did not end it.

DACA and the "Dreamer's Act" are not law. It is misinformation to say they are.

Edit 3: She came back around and responded, in part, to my questions. In fairness, here is her responses.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/6yuxfg/i_am_an_immigration_attorney_in_dc_what_do_you/dmqomvx/

Thanks for circling back around to my questions.

You said:

I never called it a Dreamer's Act; DACA is an executive order.

In your original post, however, you said:

I am disappointed with Trump’s decision to end the DACA, also known as the Dreamer’s Act by former President Obama.

That's just to clarify why I asked what I asked.

---

Furthermore, you said:

However, whether a particular executive order oversteps the bounds of the Constitution is for the Supreme Court to decide not me.

But that conflicts with your very first response in this AMA:

I love how everyone has turned into a Constitutional Law scholar overnight to be able to say “Yes, DACA is unconstitutional.” Deferred action is a discretionary measure that falls in line with the Presidential power of enforcement.

and

I fall in line with the camp that believes it is within the purview of the President to enact executive orders that permit wide-scale enforcement priorities and control how agencies under the executive branch, like DHS, enforce immigration restrictions.

So that's a bit confusing.

---

Anyway, I'm curious if you would support President Trump's EOs if he decided to defer action against any corporation who failed to pay its income taxes effectively setting the income tax rate at 0% for corporations? Would you oppose that EO on a principled ground?

You know immigration law, so is it true or false that the "Dreamers" who qualify for this program, but for DACA, would be eligible for deportation?

If not, then why would DACA exist in the first place?

If so, then DACA substantively changes the law.

Yes, I know the jurisprudence, I know that SCOTUS has abandoned its role in defending the Constitution, so I'm asking you to apply what you know about the Constitution, not what SCOTUS has failed to do.

It is a fundamental tenet of our representative government that we elect legislators to legislate; we do not elect legislators to create legislators (the completely abandoned anti-delegation doctrine).

---

If we were alive in 1897, I would be arguing that state segregation laws violated the 14th Amendment despite SCOTUS abandoning the Constitution and ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson that they were constitutional. Even if we were arguing before Plessy came down, I would still say they were unconstitutional, because they were.

We don't need to wait for SCOTUS or Congress or the POTUS to tell us what is constitutional, we can read, too.

I bet you didn't wait for the Courts to say that Trump's travel bans were unconstitutional before you made up your mind, did you?

DACA is an unconstitutional expansion of executive power over immigration laws because Congress has abdicated its responsibility.

The second travel ban did not affect those with legal status. Do you believe Trump's second bad was valid?

Love the name!

Can you explain what causation means? You say Trump has harmed the environment, but you then reference his reduction of government agencies and the words he has said.

What action of his has actually caused harm to the environment?