Washington girds for role reversal on executive power

While liberals may be able to throw some legal roadblocks in the way of the incoming Trump administration’s expected deregulatory efforts in areas like the environment and workplace protections, Obama’s critics say his broad reliance on relatively flimsy and fleeting forms of executive power have left much of his legacy vulnerable to being quickly overturned by Trump.

“I believe President Obama and Democrats made a fundamental error in imposing unilateral decisions through executive power,” said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, a liberal who became a favorite of GOP lawmakers in recent years because of his warnings that Obama’s executive actions exceeded his authority. “It put all of Obama’s legacy on clay feet which will now likely be shattered.”

“Whatever Obama’s pen and phone giveth, Trump’s Sharpie and Twitter can taketh away,” said Josh Blackman, a conservative law professor at the South Texas College of Law. “Obama has set all these dangerous precedents….All the shortcuts Obama took are now coming home to roost.”