Dershowitz: Congress' Inaction on Guns Doesn't Justify Exec. Action by Obama

By    |   Monday, 04 January 2016 06:49 PM EST ET

President Barack Obama is wrong to take executive action on gun control just because Congress hasn't done what he wanted, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz tells Newsmax TV. 

"If Congress doesn't act, it means Congress acted to not act. That's a decision," Dershowitz said Monday on "Newsmax Prime." "When Congress doesn't act, that's a decision legislatively taken by one branch of the government. The president can't just act because Congress doesn't act."

Obama said Monday
 he will make an announcement Tuesday on executive actions to prevent gun violence, and he has planned a televised town hall on CNN for Thursday. 

Presidents do need to have power to act independently of Congress, but that authority has been debated ever since Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase, Dershowitz told host J.D. Hayworth.

"These are issues that go back to our founding and nobody knows the clear answer: Where does executive authority end, where does legislative authority begin?" he said.

There are some guidelines in the Constitution, but not everything is clear. Obama has pushed the limits during his tenure and has hinted he'll do even more during his last year in office. The inability to pass tougher gun restrictions has been particularly bothersome to the president.

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While Obama will certainly get his way during the coming year, Republican candidates have vowed to undo any such actions if they take his place in the Oval Office in January 2017.

"Ted Cruz is right when he says that if the president acts by executive agreement a new president can undo everything he did by executive agreement," Dershowitz said. "That's as true of the Iran deal as it is of any executive action on guns, but if the president does act under his executive authority, that authority will probably last within the next year."

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President Barack Obama is wrong to take executive action on gun control just because Congress hasn't done what he wanted, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz tells Newsmax TV. If Congress doesn't act, it means Congress acted to not act. That's a decision, Dershowitz...
alan dershowitz, obama, executive action, guns, wrong, congress, inaction
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