The current battle over amnesty will have an impact on America far beyond immigration, determining whether or not future laws are enforced, according to Judge Andrew Napolitano.
The Fox News legal analyst said in an interview on "The Kelly File" that the way President Obama is pursuing his own wishes, irrespective of the law, is making him a "prince" and setting a precedent for future presidents.
At issue is the Obama administration plan to issue an executive order delaying deportations for up to 5 million illegal aliens, effectively granting them amnesty.
After his Democratic Party lost control of the Senate in the midterm election earlier this month, he warned Congress that if it doesn't do what he wants, he will accomplish his aims by executive order.
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An order could be issued by the White House any day now, which will cause trouble, Napolitano warned.
"When he suspends deportations and when he imposes his own conditions on those suspensions, he's effectively rewriting the law and that violates his oath to enforce it, hold the law as it's been written," Napolitano said.
"The American people, the Congress need to know we have a president who will enforce the law. ... When he says, 'I'm not going to enforce the law because I don't like it,' or, 'I'm impatient,' that doesn't wash under the Constitution," Napolitano said.
He confirmed that all presidents "have some discretion" with the enforcement of the laws written by Congress.
"We call it prosecutorial discretion. He can suspend some prosecutions because he wants to reallocate assets; but he cannot suspend a statute. If he suspends the prosecution of 5 million human beings under certain conditions that he made up, he is effectively rewriting the statute. And the effect of his exercise of his discretion is the opposite of what the law commands."
He said Obama is not reinterpreting a statute.
"He takes a statute and disregards it. He says I'm going to give you a better one. … Standards I would have written had I been the lawmaker."
Napolitan said it's a "gross abuse" when the effect of Obama's "discretion" is to "suspend a statute, or to have the opposite effect of what the statute commands."
"He will be playing with constitutional fire if he does this," Napolitano said.
Kelly played a video of constitutional attorney Jonathan Turley, who had commented earlier.
Turley said: "What the president is suggesting is tearing at the very fabric of the Constitution. We have a separation of powers. That gives us balance and that doesn't protect the branches. It's not there to protect the executive branch or the legislative branch. It's there to protect liberty. It's to keep any branch from assuming so much control that they become a threat to liberty. The American people have got to force this issue."
Napolitano said: "His oath is not to his heart. His oath is to the Constitution. If he assumes so much power that he can …. refuse to enforce statutes he's sworn to uphold, then we all lose liberty.
"Because then he becomes, I hate to use this phrase, but it's true; he becomes a prince," he said.
The end result, he said, is that future presidents will cite Obama's decision to override the law if that's what they want to do.
"Future presidents will rely on this behavior … if he gets away with it," he said.
"Then the question becomes, what will Congress do? Let's say Congress overrides, Congress nullifies these executive privileges. He vetoes the nullification. They override his veto. … How do they know he would enforce any new laws that they pass [if] he won't enforce these laws that were on the books from before he became president?
"We don't know where it's going to end."