How many laws did obama break
Executive summary
There is no authoritative, evidence-based tally showing that Barack Obama “broke” a specific number of laws; reporting cited by critics lists policy decisions and alleged constitutional overreach but does not document criminal convictions or a verified count of statutory violations [1] [2] [3]. Major allegations come from partisan reports, op-eds, congressional hearings and think‑tank commentaries rather than court judgments finding the president criminally liable [4] [5].
1. What the question really asks and how it can be answered
As phrased—“how many laws did Obama break”—the question demands a quantitative legal finding: proof that specific criminal statutes were violated and that those violations were legally established, typically by indictment, conviction, or binding judicial determination; the sources provided do not supply such a catalog of adjudicated crimes and instead mix policy criticism, constitutional arguments, and partisan counts [5] [4].
2. The body of allegations: executive discretion, immigration actions, rule delays and policy disputes
Conservative commentators and some Republican lawmakers compiled lists of actions they call “violations”—examples include alleged unlawful executive actions on immigration, delays or reinterpretations of the Affordable Care Act’s provisions, and regulatory shortcuts—claims documented in op-eds and congressional hearing records but framed as constitutional or statutory overreach rather than proven criminality [2] [3] [6] [1].
3. What official inquiries and courts actually found
The material provided includes congressional reports and partisan legal critiques that argue the administration overstepped, but those documents do not equate to criminal findings; major independent fact‑checks and legal analyses note that disputes over “acting outside the law” often reflect policy fights and prosecutorial discretion, and commentators have pointed out that executive orders alone are not proof of illegality [5] [7]. The sources do not cite a court or prosecutor who has established a numeric count of laws broken by Obama.
4. Partisan framing, advocacy studies, and inflated tallies
Many of the “lists” come from advocacy groups, opinion writers, and partisan offices—Cato and conservative senators produced detailed criticisms that mix constitutional claims with policy disagreements [1] [4], and local op‑eds have circulated longer lists (e.g., “78 times”) without legal adjudication [8]. These sources have explicit political perspectives and incentives: to dramatize executive power for ideological or electoral reasons, and that context must be weighed when interpreting allegations [9].
5. Debunked hoaxes and the limits of available reporting
Some viral claims—such as that Obama illegally sought to “reclaim” the presidency—have been debunked by fact‑checkers, illustrating how misinformation can inflate impressions of criminality; PolitiFact explicitly labeled one such story a hoax, noting the lack of legal basis for the claim [7]. The provided material therefore shows a mix of legitimate constitutional debate, partisan accusation, and outright misinformation.
6. Conclusion — the direct answer
Based on the reporting supplied, there is no verified count of laws that Barack Obama “broke”; critics assembled lists of actions they consider unlawful, congressional committees held hearings alleging overreach, and think‑tank reports argued constitutional violations, but none of the cited sources establishes a legally binding tally of statutory crimes or convictions against Obama [2] [3] [1] [4] [5] [7]. In short: allegations exist and were politically amplified, but the documentation in these sources does not demonstrate that Obama broke a specific number of laws as adjudicated by courts or prosecutors.