WASHINGTON — For President Obama, this has been a week to guard his power. He went to court to defend his executive action on immigration while fighting an effort by lawmakers to reverse it. And he vetoed legislation that would have stripped him of his authority to decide the fate of the much-debated Keystone XL pipeline.
Yet this is also a week when Mr. Obama is seeking to circumscribe his own power as lawmakers take up his request for retroactive endorsement of his war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Mr. Obama proposed that he not be allowed to send large-scale ground forces and that the authorization expire in three years, although he left room to get around that if need be.
The disconnect between muscular assertion of power one minute and voluntary sacrifice of it the next is mirrored on the other side of the political spectrum. Republicans have accused Mr. Obama of presiding over a new imperial presidency by exercising his executive powers on immigration, health care and other matters. At the same time, they have complained bitterly that he wants to limit his power when it comes to making war against the nation’s enemies.
The curious nature of the debate underscores the changing political environment in Washington. In modern times, presidents of both parties have traditionally taken an expansive view of their own abilities across the board, not just in one area, much as Congress has often tried to reassert itself. But today the political dynamics are not so simple.
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In part, he said, that may reflect the changing challenges of recent years. “In both these cases, the last two presidencies, it’s just a much more complex, interesting set of issues,” he said. But he said it would be better for courts to stay out and let the executive and legislative branches resolve it themselves.
“My large take,” he said, “is that lawyers shouldn’t be allowed to play around with the Constitution.”
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