– ‘Scrubbing the law’ –
A more serious challenge to the new rules may come through the courts.
Obama’s lawyers have spent months “scrubbing” existing laws to see where rules could be tightened, while surviving inevitable court challenges.
“A lot of the work that has gone on behind the scenes to take a look at what the president can do using his executive authority has been grounded in the knowledge that the gun lobby and the Republicans in Congress who regularly do their bidding are going to look for ways to try to stop it,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
Ahead of the announcement Obama insisted the measures would fall “well within my legal authority.”
But similar executive efforts by Obama to bring millions of illegal immigrants out of the shadows by shielding them from deportation have prompted a slew of lawsuits and left a key Obama policy goal in the hands of the Supreme Court.
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