Wholesale dismissal of Federal Law is NOT “prosecutorial discretion”.
It they want “prosecutorial discretion” then federal prosecutors should be forced to review each case individually and be required to file the proper paperwork for each case. Signed and sealed. With names for later action.
You’re absolutely right, Gaffer. President Obama isn’t using “prosecutorial discretion.” His administration is completely rewriting the law.
Consider speed limits. The highway patrol has limited resources and may not be able to pursue every speeder. If the highway patrol could catch everyone, prosecutors may not have the resources to prosecute every case. Regardless, everyone who speeds is subject to the same law and can be prosecuted. The president, on the other hand, effectively raises the speed limit, and he does so even though he’s sworn to faithfully execute the laws.
In my mind the truly onerous part of this discretion the president is supposed to have is that it contradicts the constitution’s requirement that the president faithfully execute the laws of the land. It says the president can ignore alternative methods of enforcement and simply plead discretion. As we have seen this allows even an uncreative person to rewrite or repurpose entire laws. For example, the Arizona law effort that intentionally mirrored federal law exactly was taken to court because it enforced the law. Obama claimed it was a violation of his discretion to not enforce. This discretion is supposedly based on limited resources and not on a desire not to enforce a law due to some disagreement with the law itself.
A real desire to faithfully execute the law would have welcomed the extra resources of the state of Arizona to fulfill the law as written by Congress. Amazing to me is that scotus said that the president has the power not to enforce even though a means to enforce is available.