1. TransCanada lawsuits: Obama exceeded constitutional authority with Keystone XL pipeline rejection

In a recent edition of Commentary magazine, Noah Rothman made a strong case that even progressives, at some point in the future, will disapprove of Barack Obama’s presidency.

It’s that what’s-good-for-the-goose thing we’ve discussed before: Obama’s legacy rests on his pen, not his powers of persuasion. And because his work can be undone by the pen of the next conservative president, that legacy might not be long for this world.

Rothman acknowledged “the president is entering 2016 with almost the same average job approval rating he took with him into 2015. The trajectory Barack Obama is on would appear roughly equivalent to that of popular former presidents like Bill Clinton.”

Still, “the indications are already clear, however, that Democrats will come to see Barack Obama’s presidency as a misguided failure – particularly if a Republican takes the White House in November,” he wrote.

That’s because Obama never bothered to win support when he could (at least temporarily) win arguments with the stroke of a pen.

“Obama’s determination to govern exclusively from the Oval Office and without the consent of the legislative branch is a weak foundation upon which to erect a legacy, as demonstrated early last year,” Rothman wrote. “Then, a federal judge reaffirmed the primacy of the government’s delineated powers when he halted the implementation of a measure that would have shielded millions of illegal immigrants from deportation.”

Other court cases also affirmed that we do, indeed, have three co-equal branches of government.

“From halting the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, to the sprawling scope of the EPA’s regulatory authority, to the implementation of a dangerous nuclear d￩tente with Iran, to the normalization of relations with Cuba; these liberal policy achievements can be unraveled with the stroke of a pen once Barack Obama is out of office,” Rothman pointed out.

There’s also the matter of Obama’s power-grabs. Progressives might be surprised to see a conservative president following Obama’s lead – but in the other direction.

“Unfortunately, the expanded executive authority that Obama carved out for himself sets a precedent that can never be undone,” Rothman added. “Obama criticized George W. Bush for using the urgency of the immediate post-9/11 environment to expand the president’s powers, but he only built upon that ballooning authority when he occupied the Oval Office. The next president is equally likely to cite Obama’s dubious example to pursue unilaterally the agenda preferred by his or her core supporters.”

Here’s where the goose and the gander come in. For seven years, Democrats in Congress have sat by as Obama usurps their power – or even worse, handed it over to him eagerly.

That will change when they’re sitting across from a Republican president.

Suddenly, we’ll be hearing about the proper limits to a president’s authority.

But Democrats will find their arguments undermined by their own actions during the Obama administration.

As Rothman predicts, “Democrats will come to loathe the executive powers Obama expanded to achieve his short-lived victories as one by one those powers are deployed to achieve conservative ends.”

What’s good for the goose and all.