Cantor Outlines Actions of the 'Imperial Presidency'

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) yesterday released a report showcasing more than 40 examples of breakdowns in the rule of law over President Obama’s term.

“The Imperial Presidency” pulls together investigations from various House committees and administration actions from circumventing the regulatory process to creating new programs and superagencies without the consent of Congress.

Some highlights:

• “In April of 2011, the NLRB filed a complaint against The Boeing Company for building an assembly line in South Carolina despite the fact the NLRB could not demonstrate that Boeing was breaking any law. The NLRB tried to force Boeing to move the work to Washington State from the non-union facility in South Carolina. Ultimately the NLRB backed down and dropped their case against Boeing, only after their coercive efforts caused Boeing to modify its agreement with a Washington-based union.”
• “On July 19th, 2010 President Obama signed Executive Order 13547 to adopt the final recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force to implement a new National Ocean Policy, which includes a mandatory Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning initiative to ‘zone’ the oceans. In this unilateral action, he established a top-down, Washington, D.C.–based approval process that will hinder rather than promote ocean and inland activities and cost American jobs.”
• “It is clear that Congress wanted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to be the sole federal agency setting these standards, and that states were preempted from going their own way. Yet the Obama administration has given EPA the lead role and has allowed California to wield significant influence, in effect allowing California to dictate an auto standard for all other states. Under this administration’s rules, NHTSA is a decidedly junior partner despite being the only one with any expertise on fuel economy standards.”
• “The Administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) took the position that the Administration has the power to declare what religious staff positions at a religious institution are ‘religious enough’ to enjoy the protections from government interference guaranteed by the First Amendment. Ultimately, the Supreme Court decided 9-0 against the Obama Administration’s position. Even President Obama’s two Supreme Court appointees found the Administration’s position untenable.
• The Obama Administration refused to enforce the requirement, under the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003, to record ‘Israel’ as the place of birth on passports for U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem upon request.

There’s much more in Cantor’s report – read the whole thing here.