Issue Position: Rule of Law

Issue Position

It is often said that ours is a government of laws, not of men. This idea of law trumping the whims of individual officeholders is inherent in our nation's DNA: the American revolutionaries revolted against a hereditary monarch, and the Constitution bans title of nobility.
In his first major political speech, delivered before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield in 1838, Abraham Lincoln argued that the perpetuation of America's political institutions, and thus the protection of individual liberty, required dedication to the rule of law. Lincoln admonished his audience that reverence for the rule of law should "become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars."
Lincoln understood what too few recognize today: dedication to the rule of law and respect for the Constitution are prerequisites for a free, prosperous society.
President Obama has habitually boasted of going around Congress to legislate on his own -- even though the Constitution delegates no legislative authority to the President. By "going it alone," the President is acting outside the bounds of the law and Constitution and is becoming a law unto himself, which is what the Founders sought to prevent and what Lincoln feared.
I have taken the lead in Congress in holding President Obama accountable for his offenses against the constitutional order, including successfully pass through the House the Faithful Execution of the Law Act. I will continue to insist that the rule of law be respected and the Constitution be honored as written.

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