Its like nothing washington or the nation has ever seen, a flurry of executive orders and actions from a president in office only a little more than two weeks. The result has created a lot of strong feelings on both sides of the political aisle. Some calling mr. Trumps actions overre overreaching and unconstitutional. Others believe he is well within his Rights Action president. Joining me is a professor of constitutional law at the university of pennsylvania. He clerked for u. S. Supreme Court Justice david suitor. If his name sounds familiar, its because he is the great, great grandson of president theodor roosevelt. Welcome. Thank you for being with us. Lets talk about executive orders. Help us understand what does that really mean . Well, an executive order is actually not as mysterious or important as most people think. Its the president telling someone within the executive branch to do something. The president has authority over the executive branch. He can tell his executive officials or his executive agencies, here is what i want you to do. We have seen a lot of these over the last couple of days. What is the difference between an executive order and executive action . The executive order is when the president transmits his desires to these people. So he is saying, customs and border patrol, you are officials within the executive branch. Here is what i want you to do. When they do that, thats the executive branch taking action. Is there anything different or unusual about President Trumps executive orders . We have seen a lot so far. Well, he has certainly been energetic. Theres nothing particularly unusual about issuing a lot of executive orders early in his term. You know, thats how president s start implementing their policies. What we always have to ask is whats the substance of these particular executive orders. Are there problems with conflicts with federal law . Are there problems with conflicts with the constitution . Is there something the president is allowed to do . But executive orders by th themselv themselves, very usual. Nothing to be worried about. Are they typically this controversial . Well, not usually. Not usually at the beginning. President s often they start off a little more slowly. Historically, there have been enormously controversial executive orders. President roosevelt in world war ii ordered the detention of japaneseamericans Via Executive order. I want to get to that later on. Sticking with this current political climate, can an executive order create a new law . I feel a lot of people have questions about how this whole process works. Can it create a new law . No, it cant create a new law. This is what i was saying before. With an executive order, the president can say to people in the executive branch, here is what i want to you do. He cant tell ordinary citizens they have to do something. He cant order the government thats not under his control to do something. And he has to follow the law. Its a general principal in constitutional law, if Congress Sets the law, the president has to follow it. So what about the flip side . Can an executive order undo a law thats already on the books . Again, no. The president cant make laws. The president cant repeal laws. All the president can do is enforce laws and execute the authority thats given to him by the constitution or by congress. Its possible the president can say, im not going to enforce this law. Then you have questions, is that within his Constitutional Authority or not . The president is supposed to the constitution says take care laws are faithfully executed. If he just says, i dont like this law, im not going to force it, thats maybe a problem. If he says, there are lots of things that demand my attention, i will make this law a low priority, thats probably permissible. Why do you think so many people are talking about this and have questions about this right now . Is it because of the rapid fire that we have seen these executive orders coming down . Well, its rapid fire. Its very dra the matic. People taken off planes, being detained at airports. Its controversial. These are policies that some people think are mistakes. There are questions about the legality and constitutionality. So very dra malt matic. Challenges in courts succeeded so far, some of them. Lots of ingredients coming together to make this on the publics radar. Talk a little bit about the firing of the attorney general last week. How was that within the president s power . Well, firing the attorney general is pretty clearly within the president s power. The president is the head of the executive branch, officials in the executive branch work for him. He can tell them what to do. Under some circumstances, i guess if they think it violates the law or the constitution, those officials can say, no, i wont do this, i cant do this consistent with my oath to the constitution. But then its certainly within the president s power to fire those people and replace them with someone who is more willing to execute his policies. Wasnt it really a moot point then when we talk about salary yates . Because she was going to be replaced anyway. It was a moot point for a couple of reasons. One is, yes, she was going to be replaced. She was an obama holdover. She was going to be out. The other is, people argue about whether she should have resigned or whether it was appropriate for her just to refuse and say no, the Justice Department wont defend this executive order. Because the president clearly had the authority to fire her, which he did, that didnt really make much of a difference. Here is a question for you. Does the president have the right to go against the ruling of the attorney general, the person he appoints to the position . Yes. The president doesnt have any obligation to follow the legal opinions of the attorney general. Thats what you see in this case. Sally yates said my view is this law is unconstitutional or unlawful, this executive order. The president said, i think its fine. Im going to get an attorney general who will defend it. The president does have to follow what the courts say. The attorney general works for the president. An American History refresher here. We talked about the executive branch. Explain, what exactly the powers are of the executive branch. Many people are just unaware of the president s authority. People are unaware of the limits on the president s authority. Thats in part because president s do a lot more now than they used to. In practical terms, the authority of the president has grown. But in terms of the constitution, its supposed to be relatively limited. The founders decided they could protect individual liberty by dividing powers of the government. You have congress. You have the president. Then you have judges who intere interpret laws and tell you when the other branchs have gone beyond the bounds. How do those relate to one another . They are supposed to relate to each other in a sort of check and balance way. So theyre supposed to push back against each other. The found hers had this idea th the president would want to protect the powers of the presidency. The courts would want to keep everyone in line and protect their own authority. The different branchs of government would be natural rivals. It hasnt worked out that way largely because of the party system. Party loyalty is now really what determines the way in which members of one branch relate to each other. Members of congress who are the same Political Party as the president support the president more than the founders thought they would. Members of congress who are members of a Different Party oppose the president. Wasnt you have written a bot a con trtroversial executive or ordering the confinement of tens of thousands of japaneseamericans in internment camps. Tell us about that, your book, and why you chose to write on this subject. Well, wasnt ei wanted to wrt how a nation reacts in times of fear. I was thinking about the aftermath of the september 11 attacks and the long, ongoing struggle against i wanted to look at the choices we make and the mistakes we make and what we can learn from the past. The situation following the attack on pearl harbor was in some ways very similar to the situation following the september 11th attacks. We were trying to figure out who is the enemy. We were trying to figure out who is a threat to us, what do we need to do to be safe. There were a lot of hard questions that came up. What is consistent with American Values . Who you can trust . How you can tell whether someone is loyal . Allegiance . Available now at fine bookstores everywhere. Also online retailers. Moving forward, President Trump using National Security president ial memorandums. One of them we heard a lot about this allows his Political Team access to National Security council meeting. A lot of folks on social media talking about this. Is that within his powers according to the constitution . Why is it so controversial . Well, that is within his powers. The constitution doesnt say anything about it. There is a federal law about the composition of the National Security council. So there are some people he maybe cant take off it. What he has done is consistent with that. The surprising thing is not so much who he has taken off maybe a little bit he has demoted intelligence professionals. But the surprising thing is who he brought in. Thats what people are upset about. Not because its illegal. Its not. No one is suggesting that. But because its consistent with an anxiety that i think people have about the trump administration, which is that political operatives are making decisions where you would rather have experts in the field doing it. To the extent he will be listening to political strategists rather than intelligence professionals, people are worried that its going to be political people running the show and not the experienced, the experts in the field. We have heard about the Obama Administration with this transition. Didnt president obama use similar techniques to what President Trump is doing in terms of Getting Around Congress . Well, obama certainly used executive orders. Obama used the power of the presidency aggressively. The question is what the justification is for it. We havent seen this with trump. We havent had enough time to get experience with what the trump administrations legal theory is. The Bush Administration used to say, the constitution gives me this power as president and thats all i need and congress cant stop me. If i have to defend the nation, i can override a federal law. Obama never said that. Obama said, this statute gives me the authority to do what im doing. In some cases, that was not a very plausible reading of the statute. Obama never claimed the commander in chief power. We dont know what trumps theory is going to be. What is the biggest misunderstanding, the biggest that americans have about the constitution . The biggest misunderstanding is that it has all the answers, that its this black box created a long time ago and judges can somehow find the answers to our current problems. Thats not what the constitution does. Theres no way it could do that if you think about it realistically. What the constitution does is it tries to give us a framework within which we can govern ourselves, within which we can find the answers to our problems and make good policy. But that requires a lot of work. Judges cant do it. The constitution cant do it. The American People have to do it and we have to work together. Thanks for being here with us. Emergency room or walkin clinic . Help knowing which way to turn when you need medical attention. Thats next. Fios is not cable. Were wired differently. Which means we can deliver equal uploads and downloads. Welcome to 8 and a half maple street. Its half a house. And even though it only has half a kitchen, half the closet space and a half bath, its a full house to the wilsons. Because they have fios, the only 100 fiber optic network, with uploads as fast as downloads, their half house has full internet. Cable only offers upload speeds that are a fraction of their downloads. 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Nbc 10 was there last week as the mayor helped cut the ribbon at the vibe Urgent Care Center on broad street. The new facility says it provides patients a relaxed, stressfree environment featuring Board Certified doctors, digital xrays, lab services and multiple exam rooms. It is the fourth vibe urgent care sprinkled throughout the city. There are many others like it all over our area. A new survey finds patients like the fact that they are open seven days a week with evening hours and that no appointment is necessary. Getting treatment for a cold, the flu or sore throat are the top reasons people use the centers followed by cuts, breaks and sprains. Jim rosenfield talked to the ceo of vibe urgent care about what people can expect from medical centers like his, including how they plan to deal with the potential loss of obamacare. Thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Urgent care centers seem to be popping up around the area. Whats behind this . Theres a couple of things driving the growth. One is just an increase in the population. The second is an increase in health care costs. The third is a growing shortage of primary care physicians. There arent enough places for people to go to get basic, Accessible Health care. Those trends are driving the growth at urgent care. When you walk in, what can you expect you will be able to get . You will be seen by a doctor or is it physicians assistant or our model is have a physician on site. We believe thats the best model and we can handle the broadest scope of care. We do lap testing. We can treat about 80 of what can happen in an emergency room. All types of basic injuries and illnesses. Most people shouldnt be in an emergency room and should be in an Urgent Care Center. Is there anything you want people to know that they shouldnt be going to the Urgent Care Center but should go to an e. R. . We have that happen every week. If you have a lifethreatening illness. If you feel like you are having a stroke or a short of breath and having difficulty breathing. Be at a hospital . Exactly. If you have been in a motor accident, things like that. Were geared for everyday illnesses and injuries. Is any of this growth driven by changes that we have seen with Affordable Health care and with all this talk about repealing and replacing, where does that leave this . I think absolutely it has been driven by the Affordable Care act. More people have coverage. More people will avail themselves of services. Thats a good thing for us in the long run. If people take care of health needs up front before they turn into longterm chronic conditions, it saves the Health Care System money. Access on the front end is very, very important. If the plan is repealed which i think is challenging. But if its repealed, the bottom line is more and more costs are being passed to us as consumers with heidi duigh deductible hea plans. I think we have a lot of growth in front of us because of that. They know there are more options now. They know they shouldnt be an emergency room for basic care. I think we will continue to see nice growth in the business. What about people who dont have insurance . Can they self pay . They can self pay. We have programs in place for them to pay over time. We want to make sure they are able to be seen as well. Is there a way for people to find out maybe what its going to cost ahead of time for them to decide if they want to go that route . Absolutely. Call us. We post all of our prices. We can tell people exactly what it would cost. We thank you for joining us. My pleasure. Thank you. Critics say they eliminate the longterm relationship patients have with their doctors who often have a deeper understanding of a patients overall health. Peter says his center recognizes that and encourages people who go there to have their own primary care doctor. 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Workers at interim house were stunned when nbc 10 burst into their Conference Room with a surprise announcement. You are the recipients of a check for 35,000. I see tears coming from your eyes. Im so overwhelmed. The cham