The Constitution’s admonition that the laws be faithfully executed, for instance, “does not say that the president shall robotically execute the laws,” says Simon Lazarus, a senior counsel at the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center. The provision, he says, incorporates “a reasonableness standard.”…

…Lazarus of the Constitutional Accountability Center says it is perfectly reasonable for Obama to delay the employer mandate without asking Congress for permission. The president, he explains, is “faithfully” executing the law because he is ensuring the mandate will work better once it takes full effect.

“The president’s job here is to implement this particular provision, the employer mandate, in a way that meshes with the faithful implementation of an entire large statute that is being phased in,” Lazarus says. “That’s exactly what we pay the president to do. That’s why we have an executive branch. I would say this is exactly what the Take Care Clause is all about.”….