” Congress voted 517 – 5 to impose sanctions on Russia. The President decides to ignore that law. Folks that is a constitutional crisis. There should be outrage in every corner of this country.” Senator Claire McCaskill
Please share widely!
Reality-based commentary on politics.
Your number don’t quite work. What was the real issue and the real vote, perhaps a link to a verifiable source.
What does the President have to do to make it take effect? If sanctions are the law than all relevant agencies are bound by it, presidential action or not, it would seem.
“John Marshall has made his decision;; now let him enforce it.”
—attributed to Andrew Jackson, in response to the 1831 Supreme Court decision in Webster v. Georgia. (The actual quote was “The decision of the supreme court has fell still born, and they find that it cannot coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate.”)
My point is that constitutional crises are first and foremost political; if Congress (as a body) ignores nonfeasance, there is no crisis. This applies to statutes as well as judicial decisions. Consider that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which were adopted in 1868 and 1870 respectively, weren’t really enforced for nearly a century.
The only solution to this is equally political.