Hear ye! Hear Ye. I, His Royal Highness Joseph the Biden, will issue decrees on my first day after the coronation that my loyal and beloved subjects damn well better follow — or else.
Among these decrees will be the outlawing of all mentions of the traitorous usurper Donald Trump and his policies. From this day forward, I will free the kingdom of his nefarious doings and bring peace and justice back to the galaxy…er, realm.
All mentions of the criminal in books, magazines, newspapers, and websites will be forever stricken, never to be seen again. All images of the traitor will be scrubbed from video recordings. All reproductions of his voice will be erased. It will be as if he never existed.
My first decree will be to rejoin the Paris Climate Accords in order to help the world slay the dragon of global warming. First, of course, we must find the dragon to determine if it even exists. And what happens if it’s only a little tiny dragon? We’ll worry about that later.
Other monsters, like the coronavirus, racism, unequal distribution of wealth, and the barbaric practice of putting criminals in prison will be dealt with in time.
He will rejoin the Paris climate accords, according to those close to his campaign and commitments he has made in recent months, and he will reverse President Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization. He will repeal the ban on almost all travel from some Muslim-majority countries, and he will reinstate the program allowing “dreamers,” who were brought to the United States illegally as children, to remain in the country, according to people familiar with his plans….
“The policy team, the transition policy teams, are focusing now very much on executive power,” said a Biden ally who has been in touch with his team who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. “I expect that to be freely used in a Biden administration at this point, if the Senate becomes a roadblock.”
The Volokh Conspiracy’s Josh Blackman makes the argument that Democrats are suddenly going to find executive orders a perfect response to gridlock.
Yes, it is time everyone, to switch positions on executive action, administrative deference, and nationwide injunctions. The past four years have been fun. Now it’s time to change things up.
In a best-case scenario, the Democrats will have 50 votes in the Senate. Any major legislation would require several Republican votes to beat a filibuster. And, if the Republicans carry a slim majority, then major legislation would likely not even be brought for a vote. Given these dynamics, it is entirely unsurprising that the Bide administration would turn to robust executive action to accomplish its goal.
And believe it or not, the only thing standing in the way of Biden and his radical executive orders will be the much-maligned John Roberts and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Blackman points out that the Roberts court set “traps” for presidents who wish to undo their predecessor’s legacy.
Alas, the Biden administration will soon meet the Roberts buzzsaw. Over the past few years, the Chief has laid down a gauntlet of traps for Presidents who try to undo the actions of their predecessors. And I am convinced Roberts set these traps, knowing full well that he could snare them upon a Democratic President. The long game is quite long. Over the past four years, the Court’s progressives were happy to join these precedents. And the Court’s conservatives bitterly dissented. Now, it’s time to change things up.
We’ll see. But in the meantime, you would think liberals would object to executive orders on ideological grounds. After all, executive orders are the most undemocratic of devices, bypassing Congress to impose a president’s will. Somehow, when it comes to the raw exercise of power, there’s just no substitute for cramming a policy down the throats of American citizens.
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