What would happen if....

[ohbythebay]

I am putting this in Legal as I am asking from a legal action standpoint. Mods, please move if you feel it doesn't belong HERE

What would be the first legal actions to occur if Obama used an executive order to impose specific handgun bans ? Example - Extended background checks, mandatory registration of all firearms and magazine round limits to name a few?

So the question is, what would be the legal actions to fight an executive order? Who would have to put it forth ?

I wont even ask about what would you do to comply or not comply...

legal thoughts ?

 

[ConstitutionCowboy]

Congress can stop him. Congress can refuse to finance it. Congress can impeach and convict him for misprision. There may be other avenues as well.

Woody

 

[Sam1911]

Back when we thought "something" was going to happen after Sandy Hook, we ha a lot of threads on what Obama was going to do via E.O., and what he could or couldn't do, and what we might do about it. I do suggest doing a search on "executive order" and reading the longer threads that hit.

Here's a brief one that covers some of it well: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=750321

Short answer is, what the President can actually do by executive order is a lot more limited than what most people think. He can't just ban guns, or even a gun or type of gun. He can't make a law or strike one down. (Let's face it, he -- or more likely his predecessors -- would have done so by now.) His orders are limited to instructing various federal agencies how to implement specific policies that they already have discretion to regulate.

Unfortunately, sometimes that's enough to cause us heartburn (like by blocking trade in certain goods from certain countries), but he can't ban guns that way.

 

[ohbythebay]

Was just curious...

As understand it, Executive orders can only be issued within existing law (cannot create new laws) and if not, would be overturned quickly by the judicial branch. Was just wondering who would start the ball rolling against him...Congress?

 

[Ditchtiger]

Congress can stop him.

You betcha, like that's will happen.
They will need to disconnect their lips from his exit-orifice first.

 

[Sam1911]

And yet, take careful note of the fact that, in the most auspicious moment of public fervor for gun control in the last 20 years, in the awful wake of the Newtown school shooting, the President did nothing of the sort.

He put forth a list of over 20 executive orders which amounted to nothing more substantive than "looking into" this and "promoting" that.

Folks were certain that this was finally the moment he'd rip off the mask and bare his fangs and show that he didn't care about the Constitution and our federal system of checks and balances. He'd ban guns by fiat and DARE Congress to step up and try to stop him. Some predicted this was literally the end of our democratic republican form of government.

And yet, it did not happen. He, essentially, growled and paced and gnashed his teeth at how he wanted to strike a blow for gun control while public fury was high. And in the end he did nothing.

So, be ever vigilant, of course, but don't fear the boogey man of executive orders as much as you're told to.

 

[ohbythebay]

Good to know...

Thanks....

 

[Ditchtiger]

edit

 

[Ditchtiger]

. And in the end he did nothing.

He was not able to vote "present"

 

[AlexanderA]

The things the OP mentioned would require legislation, and could not be done by Executive Order. Everybody in government knows this, including the President. Let's stay within the realm of possibility.

 

[Frank Ettin]

From here the only place to go is wild speculation. That's not useful, nor do we do that sort of thing here.