
Professor Jill E. Family

“We need to examine comprehensively the procedures that accompany executive power in immigration law, and I think as immigration law scholarship grows to separate out the constitutional roles of the President and Congress when it comes to immigration law, we will inevitably consider the extent of the President’s inherent authority over immigration law,” Professor and Law and Government Institute Director Jill E. Family said during a recent panel aired on C-SPAN that focused on President Obama’s use of executive orders and the separation of power between the executive and legislative branches.Her remarks came during the first panel of the daylong American Association of Law Schools Academic Symposium held on January 5th. The symposium took place during the final day of the AALS Annual Meeting that took place from January 2nd through the 5th at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.Professor Family’s talk, “An Unexceptional Aspect of the Battle Between President Obama and Congress Over Immigration Law,” highlighted the idea that the proper formulation of non-legislative rules did not seem an area ripe for arguing Presidential overreach.Family concluded her remarks by asking, “If the President has inherent authority over immigration law, what is the source of any procedural restraint against the President’s action? Does the Administrative Procedure Act become irrelevant if the President is exercising inherent authority? Those I think are newsworthy questions, but whether an agency properly formulated a non-legislative rule is not.”Full video of the panel can be accessed on C-SPAN’s website.Standard Disclaimer for External Links