Posted on 04/03/2012 1:10:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In his comments in the Rose Garden on Monday about the fate of his signature health care legislation, the president attempted at one point to hoist Republicans by their own petard. He said:
"I’d just remind conservative commentators that for years what we’ve heard is, the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint—that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. Well, this is a good example…."
He is right that conservatives have repeatedly lambasted liberal judges for their judicial activism. He is dead wrong, however, when he claims that the Supreme Court’s ruling on ObamaCare is a “good example.”
Far from creating law from the bench, the high court is carrying out its constitutionally mandated responsibility to rule on the constitutionality of a law, in this case a law passed by Congress. Nor would overturning the health care law represent “an unprecedented, extraordinary step” as the president further claimed.
For a man whose curriculum vitae includes lecturing on constitutional law at the University of Chicago, the president seems to be a little in the dark about both the Constitution and the law. Consider his suggestion later on in his remarks that this is “not an abstract argument” and “that people’s lives are affected.” Every decision the Supreme Court hands down is by its nature based on an abstract argument. If it weren’t—if it applied, for example, to a single case—it wouldn’t be much of a ruling. What is more, the vast majority if not all the cases heard before the court impact the lives of the American people in some way.
That the president has a half-baked view of the job of the courts is nothing new. In making his first appointment to the high court in May of 2009, he articulated the same incorrect assumptions:
"I will seek someone who understands that justice isn’t about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a casebook; it is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people’s lives, whether they can make a living and care for their families, whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation. I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people’s hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes."
He also spoke on that occasion on the importance of applying “empathy and understanding” to every legal decision. Both are essential ingredients of judicial activism but have nothing to do with the law.
I am “white”
I carry no guilt
I carry
I shall feel no guilt
I shall live, as shall my family.
EL
This man claims to be a constitutional law professor. His students better have a hefty malpractice policy
It’s not ignorance, it’s an agenda
Ignorance? No. Disdain? Yes.
...along with the co-conspirator MSM for not vetting Odumbo like they would any other candidate 2008, they probably knew more about him than were finding out now.
I was listening to Rush take this apart today, and I was thinking, “Obama knows exactly what he is saying, and he knows it’s not true.”
I believe to my core that he’s not that dumb - but his voter base is. And THAT is why he says stupid stuff like that. His base, and most liberals for that matter, will take whatever he says as gospel and run with it.
The usual idiots will call the local talk shows and scream judicial activism, without knowing what it is. They have been educated by the fine indoctrinators of the public school system for about 40 years now, and two or three generations have lost the ability to think.
He knows he’s lying. He’s just broadcasting the party line.
depends on your definition of "unprecedented", "extraordinary" & "strong majority"
The Supreme Court has overturned plenty of laws Congress passed by a combination of both parties. I am a wrong to think he is the center of a Donkey's butt? :)
“Obama’s ‘gotcha’ moment reveals his ignorance of the law”
He never took Civics in school.
OH - and what I wouldn’t give to have someone with enough brass to tell him when he says something like that: “You are either the most ignorant President in history, or you are a filthy liar. Either way, you need to go.”
Obviously, Barky knows the jig is up.
So, it depends on his definition of "unprecedented" "extraordinary" & "Strong majority"
How many laws has the Court overturned which top the Health Care vote? Signed by the President and a bi-partisan vote. Maybe even a large bi-partisan vote?
I’m glad to see that there are people at FR that get it better than the ones at HA.
Those who are calling 0bama ignorant need to reexamine their premise.
0bama is not ignorant.
The only ignorance that comes into play is the ignorance of the general populace. He USES that ignorance to pressure those who would stand in his way. The Supreme Court is already receiving hundreds of thousands of pieces of mails from ignorant people demanding that they uphold 0bamacare because 0bama coerced them to do it.
Ignorance is thinking that 0bama is ignorant, rather than an evil destroyer, a communist and a master manipulator.
One of my favorite movie quotes is from The Usual Suspects: The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.
I modify it a bit for 0bama: The greatest trick that 0bama ever pulled was to make conservatives and libertarians think he was ignorant.
He was NEVER a professor. He did some lecturing and was an adjunct instructor which is far far beneath professor status.
But it’s just common knowledge now that he was a professor.
The shameless megalomaniac lies again.
A guest lecturer is NOT a professor!
I think you’re right. He’s playing the people of this country. He despises the people and hates the country.
I’m not sure he himself has ever claimed he was a professor. But his toadies in Big Media has said it so often that it’s now accepted as truth.
Well, despite the fact that he thought he could surf it on and on and on that Affirmative Action wave is fast receding.
It's going to be quite a spectacle to watch him crash and burn.
But but but... He was a Harvard educated, Constitutional professor!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.