Noah Feldman, Columnist

Letting Obamacare Fail Would Break Trump's Oath

It's a violation of the Constitution to intentionally kill a valid law.

July 19, 2017 at 6:55 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Was he even listening?
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Having failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Donald Trump is now stating openly that his plan is to let Obamacare fail instead.1500490272794 Although the end result may be the same, there’s a vast difference between these two options, constitutionally speaking. Repeal is a normal legislative initiative, completely within the power of Congress and the president. But intentionally killing a validly enacted law violates the Constitution’s order that the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

Trying to destroy the law through nonenforcement isn’t just a normal exercise of presidential discretion. It’s a subversion of the legal process and a violation of the president’s oath of office. And it’s one that could potentially, if controversially, end up in court.