![How many of you faggots have literally never taken a civics class before? Do they even teach it in school anymore? [1366x1907 - 208KB]](https://pic8.co/sh/LcuZu6.png){kind=link}
Separation of powers has nothing to do with being above the law. Separation of powers in practice looks like this: to ensure Congress is not all-powerful, POTUS has the option to veto a law passed by Congress, but in order to check the presidential power, Congress can then override the veto. No one is above the law. If the constitutionality of a law is challenged, the separate power of the supreme court rules on its legality. If the Supreme Court rules it is legal, the POTUS and Congress are both bound by that law and cannot act in opposition to it.
When it comes to states not following federal law, technically the DOJ could go in and start prosecuting people For breaking federal law, even if states allow it. This is murky territory though. the federal government allows the states to have some autonomy. There was a long debate during the founding of our nation whether we should have a confederate style republic, which means the states are more Powerful than the federal government, or a federalist style. We adopted the federalist style but still allow for states to have some amount of sovereignty
Except that the president can literally just not enforce it. Andrew Jackson did it. He said fuck the Supreme Court lemme see them try to enforce that ruling. And they couldn't. And then he went on his merry way with some good, old-fashioned native slaughtering because the Executive Branch has plenary executive power. That's why it's called the Executive Branch. Plenty of presidents have done it. Obama did it with weed. That law is still in existence and is still not being enforced. If the chief law enforcement officer doesn't want to enforce the law he doesn't have to. That's how the republic works. The veto power is not the primary power separation between Congress and the Executive branch. I mean I'm not really here to debate legal fact. I took Constitutional Law in law school, I'm not stating my opinion. All executive branches of any republic have the power to not enforce laws that they think are unconstitutional or simply don't like. That is the check on Congress's power. Think about it. If there was only one police officer, would he arrest himself if Congress passed a fucked up law? Nope. The way you are describing it, Congress would be able to completely control the country with a supermajority party. They could pass a law saying the president goes to prison for doing his job and he would have to go to prison for existing. But, with the way it actually works, if this did get passed after a veto, the president would simply not enforce the law.
Yeah but that’s a whole different issue than separation of powers. “Not enforcing something” is not written into the constitution anywhere. It’s just that the DOJ doesn’t care enough or is too lazy to actually do anything about it. Technically it shouldn’t happen. Sometimes it’s a good thing that it happens, sometimes not. But “not enforcing something”has no codified part in our government
It is though, it is in article 2 section 1. The Constitution vests executive power in the president. The founders and every lawyer in this country knows what that clause means. You don't. There were hundreds of years of legal and political development in Europe from the 1200s till America was founded. They had classical educations and intentionally gave the president executive power as a check against the legislative and judicial branches. You're just uneducated.
Everything you said is correct except for the federalist style. That changed after the civil war. They specifically wanted states to have power. Many argue that change is why we are here today.
Ugh. Fixed
Not true. The Confederates literally fought for states rights and lost. That’s where they got their name. I mean obviously there’s more to it than that. They wanted to secede from the nation in order to create a confederate style government. But the federal government, i.e the union won the war and The way we operate governmentally has not changed much since. To this day the federal government is still more powerful than the states
That directly conflicts with our founders and many scholarly debates on the topic. For example, claiming interstate commerce clause, giving the powers it does today is as intended, simply does not hold water.
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