REP. JIM GERLACH: Enabling an emperor: Obama's contempt for laws

By Congressman Jim Gerlach

Guest columnist

 

President Obama’s decision to ignore a law requiring him to consult with Congress before releasing five senior Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for the return of American soldier Bowe Bergdahl is extremely disturbing, but hardly surprising.

 

Throughout his presidency, Mr. Obama has demonstrated a limitless contempt for our country’s system of checks and balances.

 

When our immigration laws clashed with his political agenda, the President ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to ignore the law and stop deporting some young people who came into the country illegally.

 

While 5 million American workers were struggling with the realization that they were losing the health insurance coverage that they liked and were promised they could keep, Mr. Obama was using his now famous pen to change the law to grant waivers to his politically-connected allies and a one-year delay of the mandate that corporations and other large employers provide insurance coverage to their workers.

 

In this White House, the political ends justify the means every time.

 

Trading five Taliban operatives for Sgt. Bergdahl again showed that President Obama simply can’t resist an opportunity to bypass Congress and ignore duly-enacted laws. And, in this case, a law that he enacted.

 

Nobody wants an American soldier to be held captive by radical terrorists.

 

However, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 supported by Democrats and Republicans in Congress and signed into law by the President last year requires the Secretary of Defense to give Congress at least 30 days notice of any plan to release terrorism suspects from Guantanamo Bay.

 

In addition, the law requires the Administration to determine whether the risk posed by the terrorism suspect will be substantially mitigated and that releasing the terror suspect is in the national security interests of the United States.

 

The intent of the law is clear. It’s simply bad policy to allow one person – whether Republican or Democrat -- to make a decision about setting free radical terrorists who have plotted to kill Americans and harm our allies.

 

Criticism of the unilateral decision by the President to release five Taliban commanders has been loud bipartisan.

 

“It’s very disappointing that there was not a level of trust to justify alerting us to that,” said Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein, who is chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “The White House is pretty unilateral about what they want to do when they want to do it.”

 

Constitutional law expert and George Washington University Law School Professor Jonathan Turley said in recent media interviews that there’s no question the Bergdahl-Taliban swap violated the law.

Turley also discussed the seriousness of the President’s refusal to accept the Constitutional limits on his power.

 

“People don't seem to understand that the separation of powers is not about the power of these branches, it's there to protect individual liberty, it's there to protect us from the concentration of power,” Turley said during a recent television interview. “That's what is occurring here. I've said it before; Barack Obama is really the president Richard Nixon always wanted to be. He's been allowed to act unilaterally in a way that we've fought for decades.”

 

Conceding the fight would be irresponsible.

 

At a minimum, Congress should exercise thorough oversight of the Bergdahl-Taliban exchange to determine why the law was not followed and examine how the release of these senior Taliban leaders leaves our troops and our citizens more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

 

All five of the Taliban commanders released by the President had close ties to al-Qaeda. It’s highly likely they’ll reunite with radical terror groups determined to carry out more attacks against U.S. troops and, possibly, American citizens.

 

As for finding a lasting solution for ensuring every President fulfils his Constitutional obligation to enforce all laws, the House passed in March the proposed Executive Needs to Faithfully Observe and Respect Congressional Enactments of the Law (ENFORCE the Law) Act.

 

Under the legislation, either the House or Senate would be able to pass a resolution by a simple majority authorizing lawsuit against the Executive Branch for failing to faithfully execute the law. This action would be heard by a three-judge panel in a federal District Court. Appeals from the three-judge panel ruling would be expeditiously heard by the United States Supreme Court.

 

If Senator Feinstein and other Democratic lawmakers are sincere about their frustration with the President sidestepping Congress before making a deal to release five Taliban commanders, then they should call on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow a vote on this legislation.

 

If we fail to act to restore the co-equal balance of power between Congress and the President, nobody should be surprised the next time President Obama -- or any president -- acts like an emperor.

 

Congressman Jim Gerlach is a Republican who represents Pennsylvania’s 6th District, which includes parts of Berks, Chester, Lebanon and Montgomery counties.