Comment by NotYourLawyer
1 year ago
> nor does the President "interpret" the law; that is the domain of the Judiciary
Everyone tasked with enforcing a law must necessarily interpret its meaning. The judiciary gets the final say though.
1 year ago
> nor does the President "interpret" the law; that is the domain of the Judiciary
Everyone tasked with enforcing a law must necessarily interpret its meaning. The judiciary gets the final say though.
you are mixing up different meanings for the word "interpret". "Authoritative Interpreting law" (or in general interpreting law) doesn't mean "trying to understand what it means" but means "deciding what it means in practice"
especially if you add a "authoritative" in the front it in legal language means they gave themself the right (i.e. authority) to decide (i.e. interpret) how law should be interpreted, i.e. what the meaning behind the written word is in practice
this is 100% without doubt or question not compatible with any democracy (including the US constitution) and is pretty much one of the default approaches Dictators use to get unchecked authority
It means that in practice (assuming people comply with the EO) means they can do whatever they want as they can just willfully absurdly, but with authority , misinterpret laws. Including to e.g. persecute judges which "step out of line", or members of the senate which don't vote for whatever he wants etc.
The DOJ regularly provides guidance about its interpretations of laws. These letters are also “deciding what it means in practice.”
https://adata.org/interpretation-letter
Nobody complains about this though.
At least on criminal matters, pardons over-ride the judicial branch.
That’s an unrelated issue.
Who will enforce following the law if the executive branch ignores the judicial?
In theory the military is sworn to defend the constitution, but if the DOD is headed by a Trump loyalist (it is), then what?
> Who will enforce following the law if the executive branch ignores the judicial?
Congress through impeachment. If they don't do that, all bets are off.
But who enforces impeachment? Who evicts the President?
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There is no suggestion that that’s going to happen.
The Vice-President of the United States is openly suggesting it. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gx3j5k63xo.amp
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The question of whether you'd be happy to have the other guy do it always applies. If you wouldn't, people moaning when it happens is always a good thing.