Obama’s Next Big Amnesty

With much of Obama’s amnesty for illegal aliens on hold as a result of the court’s injunction, the legislator-in-chief is looking for every remaining opportunity to fundamentally transform America from the Oval Office in his lingering days. His next conquest is the dismantling of law and order and criminal justice laws that have helped lead to a miraculous decline in violent crime over the past two decades.

On Monday, Obama announced his plan to commute the sentences of 46 drug offenders serving time in federal prison, bringing the total number of commutations to 86 since he has taken office. He even had time to write them a personal letter as he ignored the family of Kate Steinle and other victims of violent crime, such as Kevin Southerland who was gruesomely stabbed to death on the subway right in the nation’s capital. While libertarians and some conservatives are supportive of targeted changes to drug laws, everyone should be gravely concerned about where this is coming from and where it’s headed.

More than Petty Drug Crimes

During his announcement, Obama noted that these individuals were not “hardened criminals” and were in prison only for “non-violent drug offenses.” This is part of the broader red herring argument propagated by the bipartisan “criminal justice reform cartel” – that there is an epidemic of 19-year-olds locked up in federal prison caught smoking marijuana once in their lifetime. But the reality is that most people serving in federal prison have done some serious drug dealing or are connected to violent drug cartels or gangs.

A quick glance at the sentencing history of these 46 individuals reveals that a number of them were dealing or trafficking large amounts of cocaine or methamphetamine. Moreover, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is demanding to know how many of these individuals were connected to gangs, the quantity of narcotics they possessed, and whether the prosecutors and victims were notified. Keep in mind that many of these individuals could have initially been charged with greater offenses but entered into a plea bargain.

Given Obama’s disregard for enforcing laws he dislikes and his aggressive desire to transform the country and dismantle law enforcement, this development should put goose bumps on anyone concerned with the rule of law, aka, most Americans outside of public policy circles. If Obama is this alacritous to sign a get-out-of-jail free card with 18 months left to his presidency, it’s clear that this is the tip of the iceberg.

There is nothing stopping Obama from moving onto other categories of offenses and letting people out of federal prison carte blanche. If he is willing to release tens of thousands of violent criminal aliens who don’t even belong in this country, why would he have any compunction about releasing domestic criminals en masse?

In fact, the threat of a mass criminal amnesty from Obama is more of a clear-and-present danger than almost any potential agenda item remaining on Obama’s list to transform America.

A Familiar Pattern, Albeit with More Legitimacy

Much like his immigration amnesty, Obama has embarked on a campaign to delegitimize the laws he disdains by slowly but steadily refusing to enforce them. Then he releases past offenders. Finally, he threatens a mass amnesty if Congress declines to pass legislation along the lines of his priorities.

But unlike with immigration policy, Obama legitimately has plenary power to pardon criminals, pursuant to Article II Section II of the Constitution. It is one of the few absolute powers of the president. If Obama is willing to overturn immigration laws, over which Congress wields absolute power, he will have no problem fully exercising this rare constitutionally legitimate power. Although his policy of pardoning entire classes of offenses, de facto overturning congressional laws, is clearly a violation of the spirit of the pardon power – which was intended to be used with discretion for individuals or for extraordinary times like during the Civil War and Vietnam draft dodging – no court will limit Obama’s pardons no matter how far he takes them.

Also, as it relates to criminal justice, there are even more establishment Republicans – as well as an entire movement of libertarians and conservatives – committed to pursuing a “reform” agenda. As we noted before, there are some legitimate issues that need to be addressed, but the way some of these Republicans are pursuing the issue will only facilitate Obama’s dangerous dismantling of law enforcement and will only embolden him to expand his policy of clemency.

Obama has already name-dropped some prominent conservatives like Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) when promoting his liberalization agenda at left-wing venues. But to borrow a phrase from Obama for a moment, “let’s be clear,” Obama is not concerned about the budgetary costs of prisons; he is fully committed to pushing the long-held agenda of the ACLU to undo the two-decades’ worth of gains against violent and high-level crime. Conservatives are forewarned.

Time for Conservative Supporters of Criminal Justice Reform to Exercise Caution

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the rate of violent crime has declined from 79.8 to 23.2 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older since 1993. Before Republicans rush to judgement about undoing federal sentencing laws, they might want to consider the recent reversal of this trend during the Obama era. Coupled with Obama’s clemency agenda, federalization of law enforcement, and the coming time bomb of left-wing federal judges, now might not be the best time to loosen some of these laws.

As we noted earlier this week, most federal drug offenses are of a larger magnitude than some of the state offenses that have recently been liberalized across the country. Also, a huge percentage of federal drug offenses are perpetrated by illegal immigrants.

Now is not the best time to buttress and legitimize Obama’s criminal justice agenda. It’s a time to enforce immigration laws and demand a fence at the border. Simply building a double-layered security barrier at the Tucson sector of our southern border would prevent roughly a million pounds of Marijuana from entering our country every year. Fewer illegal immigrants and less drugs entering through our southern border is not a full panacea, but it would go a long way in reducing the prison population and the focus on drug crimes – without outsourcing our safety and security to ACLU post-constitutional judges.

When defending the decision to vest the power to pardon in the hands of the president, Alexander Hamilton observes in Federalist #74 that such consequential power in the hands of one man “would naturally inspire scrupulousness and caution; the dread of being accused of weakness or connivance, would beget equal circumspection.” Sadly, in our post-constitutional society with an obsequious media and an impotent Republican opposition, Obama feels no such dread and will not exercise any caution or circumspection. He will exercise a fundamental transformation of this nation’s ideal of law and order.

The least Republicans can do is withdraw from any negotiations over criminal justice “reform” with this president until he guarantees a curtailment of his clemency agenda. The best they can do is exercise their Article I power of the purse to thwart some of these releases from federal prison. Unfortunately, congressional Republicans are not willing to exercise their Article I powers even to a small degree compared to Obama’s willingness to utilize every inch of his Article II powers – and then some. (“Obama’s Next Big Amnesty”, originally posted HERE)

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