“That’s the good thing: As a president I can do whatever I want.” Those are President Obama’s words. He may have meant it as a joke, but it’s true enough: He, or any president, can do whatever he wants, even unwise things—provided they are legal.

And that’s the problem with the president’s effort to shape transgender policies for schools and workplaces across the country: He has rewritten laws originally penned by Congress and those rewrites are incompatible with real laws in the federal code. Obama’s transgender diktats are another case of his overreaching presidency, which deserves more attention on the campaign trail.