ABSTRACT
The New York Times columnist David Brooks agreed with the substance of Obama's executive action in suspending deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, but believed that he had transgressed the Constitution in the process, usurping the role of the legislature. In the matter of immigration reform, the real cause of contention between Obama and his Republican critics is not whether he has violated the Constitution or betrayed our democracy in the process; it is the substance of action. What is at stake for Boehner and others is not so much the scale of the action, but its substance. When it was pointed out that Obama's action has its precedents in the actions of his predecessors, Republicans as well as Democrats, Brooks responded by noting the scale of the action, 5 million rather than 1.5 million under George H. W. Bush.
