Actually, the US President has suspended the law MANY times in history.
Lincoln hung war protesters and tried to arrest an anti-war Congressman.
Wilson looked the other way after authorizing the APL ( American Protective League);

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Protective_League

Wikipedia has a pretty much left wing slant on the APL, which doesn’t synch with other written histories, notably Corson, who while the best source is NOT a liberal, or at least a rabid one like the Wiki guys prefer.

Then there is FDR, who routine and almost daily violated the Law. I have not touched on the other Presidents, who played fast and loose with both the law and legislation.
I would almost bet that EVERY President of the 20th century ignored the law when they thought is necessary. Something to always remember is that the US President IS above the law, by the law. POTUS must be impeached before he can be arrested and charged with a crime. Impeachment is a political process, NOT a legal one.
So if the USA wanted to use some ‘soft power’ on the Russians and hit them where it leaves a mark, President Bush needs to order American OIL companies to stop helping the Russian pump OIL from their wells. That would cut Soviet OIL production by 10 to 15 percent, which would be an economic blow that the Bear would feel.
U.S. OIL companies would raise holy billy bob ‘ell, but that would be all they could do.
IIRC it was FDR in WW2 that responded to a coal miners strike by arresting the Union leader and naturalizing the Coal Industry. It could have been WW1 and Wilson. I’m too lazy right now to google it.
In a time of war, which we are in now, since Congress declared one, a President can do ALMOST anything. So far in history, the USSC has always backed POTUS when it got down to it. Maybe that is because most of them understand if America falls it will be thru an internal coup and that they will be the 1st ones lined up against the wall. They are good with the President taking unconstitutional actions to ensure the survival of the Constitution. Or at least until recently. Once Stevens dies the USSC will get much more rational.

There are stories about the Supreme Justice hiding from Federal Marshals after Lincoln signed a warrant for his arrest. No hard evidence, just entries from the Supreme Justices diary, but a plume of smoke 150+ years old must have some sort of fire under it.