So, Just What Are the Checks and Limits on Presidential Power?

[0ddl0t]

I don’t get the big deal on the citizenship question. What exactly stops someone from lying on the census...?

Nothing. But a population that is already unlikely to cooperate with the government is even less likely to cooperate if they know a government official will be asking them about their citizenship status. That results in an under count of the population, which affects things like how many seats in the house (or the number of college electors) a state gets apportioned.

Because illegal immigrants tend to live in Democratic districts, even inside red states, this has become a partisan issue. While illegals cannot vote, citizens living in the same district essentially get more voting power (there are ~750,000 people per US house representative, but only the citizens inside that district get to vote for the representative).

That's why I think it makes sense to go back to counting illegals as 3/5 a person, but these days I bet that would go over like a fart in church.

[JodyH]

The problem with all three branches of government is they are all trying to expand their own power instead of putting the other two branches in check.
The idea of a limited, balanced federal government died around 1933.

[TCinVA]

The problem with all three branches of government is they are all trying to expand their own power instead of putting the other two branches in check.
The idea of a limited, balanced federal government died around 1933.

On the contrary, Congress has been only all too happy to farm out their rightful powers to the executive...where a class of unelected bureaucrats then proceeds to regulate everything to their preferences. This is where the power from Obama's "pen and phone" came from. Congress has farmed out authority to executive agencies to make rules and regulations that then have the force of law. We see a good example of this in the capricious and contradictory rulings issued by the BATFE on things like bump stocks, braces, or the attempt by the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant, etc.

Then the courts get involved and decide which regulations they like or don't like.

The end result of all this is that the "progressive" uniparty view of things is routinely advanced while people's actual liberty gets shredded.

There were tons of blatant examples of executive overreach in the last administration and it didn't produce anything like the hand wringing that the current administration has generated among the chattering classes. As an example, the Obama administration determined themselves that Congress was "in recess" and made appointments to important regulatory boards like the NLRB and that had to be challenged all the way up to the Supreme Court where they were forced to rule that no, the Executive does not get to decide on his own that Congress is in recess and thus make recess appointments for the purposes of furthering his regulatory agenda.

Meanwhile legitimate executive functions that are certainly within the executive's authority like the census question are being ruled on by courts primarily because the "progressives" don't like it and are venue shopping for a friendly activist judge to make a massive ruling that certainly extends beyond the district he/she was actually assigned to.

A significant chunk of Washington DC likes this state of affairs because it's a heads I win, tails you lose sort of game.

The interests of the DC set is continually advanced no matter who happens to get elected.

[Borderland]

It won't be so harmless when we get another AWB by executive order from this president or the next one.

People will say 'what's the big deal, I don't think we need semi-auto rifles anyway'

A president could easily try the SC with that using a public safety justification, and bingo, the SC agrees with him.

That's what's going on right now.

[TCinVA]

I'm pretty sure congress was the one that decided what the questions are on the census, not the president.

No, the Census Bureau has pretty wide latitude in what questions get asked and how they are asked.

[Borderland]

No, the Census Bureau has pretty wide latitude in what questions get asked and how they are asked.

Then they should put it in the census.

I personally don't have a problem with it but a lot of people will and it won't be accurate.

[Bart Carter]

Why in the world should the number of foreign nationals in any state decide how many representatives that state will have?

[farscott]

Why in the world should the number of foreign nationals in any state decide how many representatives that state will have?

Here is the relevant text from the Constitution:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

Since the word used is "Persons", everyone present, not just citizens, is to be counted, including immigrants, legal and otherwise.

[LSP552]

Government here was never designed to be efficient or even overly effective. Our founding fathers actually had a pretty good handle on human nature and power.

About the citizenship question, more than one way to skin a cat. I’ve yet to see any court decision saying the Gov can determine how many illegal aliens are here, just that the census ant ask that question.

I have no issue finding that info another way then using it.

[feudist]

Government here was never designed to be efficient or even overly effective. Our founding fathers actually had a pretty good handle on human nature and power.

About the citizenship question, more than one way to skin a cat. I’ve yet to see any court decision saying the Gov can determine how many illegal aliens are here, just that the census ant ask that question.

I have no issue finding that info another way then using it.

This is the real issue. And the idea that Orangeman_bad might get even a smidgen of evidence of just how bad the problem is has the dims shrieking and wetting their Underoos.