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The executive branch is responsible for enforcement of laws. He could just choose not to enforce it, no?



I think replies to this will be one of two:

* Legally the executive is not granted this power.

* But in practice they are because who's going to make them?

The entity responsible for enforcement always has this power. It's why DA races where the platform is essentially law nullification by way of non-enforcement have been happening for some light criminal justice reform that can't get through the legislature.


The executive branch has a clear history of selectively not enforcing laws, so there is clear precedent. The most notable recent example is that the last three presidents have all chosen to not enforce federal law on marijuana in states that have chosen to legalize it.


That is a somewhat different scenario as the battle over marijuana laws would boil down to a state's rights issue. Many states have claimed authority over deciding whether marijuana is legal, effectively claiming that the federal government doesn't have jurisdiction on the issue.


That doesn't change the fact that the president has instructed the DoJ to not enforce a federal law passed legally by Congress.


Sure, I'm not arguing that. The context is just different enough to be important in my opinion.


Historically it would have been congress or the Supreme Court. The issue is that no one seriously expects them to do anything against trump.


Why would Apple or Google want to take the risk? They are not TikTok, they don't stand to lose hundreds of billions of dollars of value.


Because they want to appease the new President.




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