Obama’s decision to “suspend” the employer mandate of the Affordable Care Act has no support in precedent and dramatically shifts the arc of presidential power. The Affordable Care Act has no provision giving the president power to suspend or postpone the mandate. The law requires employers with 50 or more full-time workers to provide health-insurance coverage or pay a penalty. Section 1513(d) of the act — titled “Effective Date” — stipulates that this mandate “shall apply” after “December 31, 2013.”

Which part of “shall” gives the president the power to ignore the law that he signed with such fanfare? If the president can change the effective date to Dec. 31, 2014, what prevents him from changing the date again, along with other provisions? As Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) asked: “This was the law. How can they change the law?”

If the president has the discretion to ignore laws that he prefers not to exist, the constitutional limits of presidential authority have the restraining power of air. President George H.W. Bush argued, unsuccessfully, that Congress should lower the capital gains rate. Under Obama’s faulty interpretation of presidential power, he should have simply instructed the Internal Revenue Service not to tax capital gains at a rate greater than 10 percent, regardless of the tax code. The Supreme Court held in 1998 that it was unconstitutional to give the president a line-item veto that Congress could override. Obama’s newfound “power” is much greater than that, because there is no procedure to override a presidential decree.