Tuesday, April 3, 2012

THRASHING THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Yesterday the President, while speaking at a joint press conference with the leaders of Mexico and Canada made the following statement, “I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress”. I have to wonder what this has to do with Mexico and Canada and why it would be of interest to them.

More importantly, the question which comes to mind is why does our President who claims to be a “Constitutional law expert” not understand that the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches share “equal power”? The President further thrashed the Supreme Court when he questioned how an “unelected group of people” could overturn a law approved by Congress and that to do so would be an “unprecedented abuse of power”. This comes from a constitutional Law Professor? How is it "unprecedented"? Congress passes laws and if there is a question about their legality the questions are brought before the SCOTUS for review and legal ruling. There are many examples of unconstitutional laws which were passed by congress being overturned. Since when is it an “abuse of power” to overturn an unconstitutional law? In fact, isn’t this the reason the SCOTUS exists?

I find his statement appalling, especially considering this is the President who said last December, “What I’m not going to do is wait for Congress. So whenever we have an opportunity and I have the executive authority to go ahead and get some things done, we’re just going to go ahead and do them”. He is doing this irrespective of whether the people’s duly elected representatives have a say in the matter. Why isn’t the Presidents circumvention of congress considered an abuse of power?

The President went on to state that the “Act” was passed by an overwhelming majority. I am not going to quibble about what constitutes an overwhelming majority, but as I recall the vote in the house was 219 to 212. Personally I don’t consider this to be an “overwhelming majority”. In fact, the bill was only able to be passed in the dead of night by virtue of a manipulation of an arcane rule of the Senate. In reality, a legitimate case can be made that the method in which it was passed is an abuse of power perpetrated against the American citizens. This abuse was answered in the 2010 election when the citizens of America voted overwhelmingly to remove candidates who voted in favor of the Obama cares Act. It seems more reasonable to infer that a clear majority of the American people are not in favor of the Presidents signature legislation.

Due to the majority he enjoyed in the legislative branch and the legislative leaders willingness to push his initiatives using any method possible, the President has ruled with impunity. He has pushed his agenda without any consideration of the constitutionality of his actions. Come June when the court rules on the legality of the “Obama Cares Act” it may just be the time for President Obama to find that his abuse of the Constitution has been stopped in its tracks.