Laws are for the Rest of Us

We have a law in this country that State Department officials may not attend UN events that are led by representatives of nations who sponsor terrorism. The Justice Department has declared that President Obama can ignore this law.

Presidents of both parties have long protested laws that they see infringing their power to conduct foreign relations. Nevertheless, it is a law, duly passed by Congress.

...many examples of previous administrations of both parties taking a similar view. Among them, Mr. Bush used signing statements to instruct the State Department to interpret identical restrictions as “advisory” rather than mandatory, and his administration sent officials to a Development Program meeting in January.

Congressional leaders are not happy that the Administration has decided it can ignore the law.

The chairwoman of the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees financing for the State Department, Representative Nita M. Lowey, Democrat of New York, strongly objected to the overriding of such statutes by the executive branch.

“This provision is law for a very good reason,” Ms. Lowey said. “There are consequences for being a state sponsor of terrorism. The decision of both the previous and current administrations to disregard this law is unacceptable.”