The Wheels of Justice

I agree with Uncle Ken that the gun laws that were passed in those four states are not unreasonable, that's not my point.  What I am interested in is the legality of an elected official who is charged with enforcing the laws deciding not to enforce some of them.  We had this discussion awhile back when Obama decided not to enforce, or to delay enforcing, some of the provisions of Obamacare.  My contention was that the constitution says the president is supposed to "see that the laws are well enforced".  I believe that means all the laws, although the constitution doesn't say that in so many words, I believe that is the implied intent.  Uncle Ken disagreed, saying the president gets to decide which laws to enforce and which laws not to enforce, although the constitution doesn't say that in so many words either.

Then there is the question of the balance of powers between federal, state, and local governments.  The U.S. constitution says that it is the "supreme law of the land", but it also says that in the Tenth Amendment that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."  Does that mean the states get first dibs and the people get what's left over?  I suspect that the individual state constitutions might have something to say about it, but I don't know that for a fact.  I thought this issue would come to a head when states started legalizing pot, but I don't think it has yet.

Then there's the "What's good for the goose is good for the gander." principle.  If a local jurisdiction can declare itself a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, why can't another local jurisdiction declare itself a sanctuary for gun toting citizens?  Not that I would necessarily want to live in either of those hypothetical jurisdictions, I'm just saying.

I have read and heard that Easter is all mixed up with an old pagan holiday that celebrated fertility or something like that.  Those guys organized everything by the phases of the Sun and the Moon and, apparently, the Church Fathers neglected to edit that part out when they took over this particular holiday.  Funny that they didn't do the same with Christmas, but maybe that was based on the old Roman calendar.