Court ruling comes as president’s use of power is tested

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Before a unanimous Supreme Court weighed in, the White House had brushed off claims that President Barack Obama was exceeding his executive authority as just so much grousing from frustrated partisans.

Then, in a 9-0 decision Thursday, the high court ruled that at least in one case Obama had gone too far.

For Republicans, the court’s decision that Obama violated the Constitution in 2012 when he appointed members to the National Labor Relations Board without Senate confirmation validated their argument that Obama has acted against the law when he has taken matters into his own hands.

The court’s decision comes while Obama is determined to use all his executive powers to get around the gridlock of a divided Congress. In the process, he has left his imprint on policies ranging from immigration to the environment, from gay rights to worker pay.

“This administration has a tendency to abide by laws that it likes and to disregard those it doesn’t,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said. “Whether it’s recess appointments or Obamacare, this troubling approach does serious damage to the rule of law, and the court’s decision is a clear rebuke of the administration’s behavior.”

Just this week, House Speaker John Boehner accused Obama of “aggressive unilateralism” and announced he would seek a vote in the Republican-controlled House to authorize an election-year lawsuit asserting that Obama has failed to carry out the laws passed by Congress.

The list of grievances against Obama range from his administration’s 2011 decision not to argue in favor of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act before the Supreme Court to his decision to allow certain immigrants who entered the country illegally as children to obtain work permits.

Obama has readily embraced a strategy of acting on his own to pursue certain policies.