Maggie's Farm

OneGuy: Iy is settled law that unconstitutional laws and mandates are not legally enforceable and do not have to be obeyed.

As a general rule, you should obey the law until a court rules on the constitutionality of the law at issue. If you disobey a law which is later upheld, then you can be found criminally or civilly liable. If you disobey a court order, regardless of the underlying legal dispute, you can be held in criminal or civil contempt.

OneGuy: The judges have stepped out of their lane and into the separation of power which is something the constitution clearly states that they cannot do.

If you are referring to the injunction over the spending freeze, the judge has seen evidence that the President and Musk may have exceed their authority under the law. But the injunction is just temporary until a hearing on the merits can be held.

James: That is a standard no presidential administration in the last 100 years has observed.

The courts have repeatedly held that the President can’t just refuse to spend funds as directed by Congress. For instance, Congress had passed an appropriation over President Nixon’s veto, then Nixon impounded the funds, but the courts found he had no such authority, and he was required to “Take Care that the law be faithfully executed.” See Train v. City of New York. (Think about it: What is the point of a Congressional override if the President can just ignore the law anyway?)

On the other hand, Congress can and does delegate authority to the President to withhold funds in certain circumstances. That requires examining the statute and the case history.

Even then, there’s a limit to how much power Congress can delegate to the President. In Clinton v. City of New York, the Supreme Court found that Congress can’t give the President a line item veto, a power you claim the President has regardless of enabling legislation.

OneGuy: DOGE has clearly discovered $50 billion in outright fraud a year at the Social Security Administration.

Do you have actual evidence of this, or just Musk's say-so?

Zachriel: Do you have actual evidence of this, or just Musk's say-so?

OneGuy: It would seem that DOGE has hit close to home and that has you worried.

So, no, you don’t have actual evidence.

SEC. 413. STATUS OF AID. (a) IN GENERAL.—Unless abolished pursuant to the reorganization plan submitted under section 601, and except as provided in section 412, there is within the executive branch of Government the United States Agency for International Development as an entity described in section 104 of title 5, United States Code.