How can cities and states disobey prevent Presidential Executive Orders?

[repoman]

This is not a well thought out question, just something rolling around from reading about the executive order that Obama has just rolled out. I think I saw something about there being more ATF agents being enlisted to work on enforcement.

Let's say (whether it is true or not doesn't matter - this is a thought experiment) that Obama has the ATF enforce a policy that is not even close to what any law says and is in fact explicitly illegal according to current laws. Could a Governor use state police to blockage the ATF from enforcing the law?

Who knows, maybe in a year from now Trump will be president and refusal to obey his executive orders will make a lot of sense. Just imagining the wording on those is making me laugh.

I guess the opposite example was when Eisenhower broke the mob blockade of the Little Rock 9 with the National Guard through an Executive Order.

 

[Sarpedon]

The problem is that if it is a legitimate exercise of executive power, you can't. President Eisenhower used his power to uphold the laws of the United States, when local officials refused to. The federal government is supreme over state governments, so there's no way for a state government to nullify a federal law. This has been tested in the courts, and indeed on the battlefield, more than once.

The best way to oppose them is through the courts, of course, but only if the action is not justified by the law, or unfairly infringes on someone's rights.

 

[Trausti]

This is not a well thought out question, just something rolling around from reading about the executive order that Obama has just rolled out. I think I saw something about there being more ATF agents being enlisted to work on enforcement.

Let's say (whether it is true or not doesn't matter - this is a thought experiment) that Obama has the ATF enforce a policy that is not even close to what any law says and is in fact explicitly illegal according to current laws. Could a Governor use state police to blockage the ATF from enforcing the law?

Who knows, maybe in a year from now Trump will be president and refusal to obey his executive orders will make a lot of sense. Just imagining the wording on those is making me laugh.

I guess the opposite example was when Eisenhower broke the mob blockade of the Little Rock 9 with the National Guard through an Executive Order.

They could simply ignore it or, more likely, go to the federal court and get an injunction against the ultra vires act.