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Obama’s ‘gotcha’ moment reveals his ignorance of the law
Hot Air ^ | April 3, 2012 | Howard Portnoy

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.


TOPICS: Government; Health/Medicine; Politics
KEYWORDS: obama; obamacare; scotus; supremecourt
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To: HeadOn

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.

Not only that the libs have undereducated those in public schools so they would have stupid, lock step masses to vote for them including the illegals. Such a high class bunch those lib/communists.


21 posted on 04/03/2012 1:52:44 PM PDT by Bitsy
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To: choctaw man

He took civics when he was in school in Indonesia and doesn’t realize the US version is different.


22 posted on 04/03/2012 1:53:51 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
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.

I don't know why people assume that Obama studied our Constitution so that he would understand it, honor it, and apply it. I am positive that he studied The U.S. Constitution so that he would know how to ignore what he wanted, find loopholes, and change it.

Why anyone would think that this man, raised by Communist grandparents, mentored for years by a known Communist, and whose "friends" throughout life only include those of Communist/Marxist persuasions would suddenly want to embrace and/or apply the mandates of our Constitution is beyond me. His knowledge was gained only so he could find ways to (1) go around the law, and (2) use the law against our country...a tactic employed by those who are out to destroy unity and divide our people. We have seen Obama apply the "divide and conquer" theme since his first day in our White House.

I am certain that when he had to take the Oath of Office,a second time, after purposely flubbing the first swearing-in ceremony, that "to uphold The Constitution" was not his intent, if he even spoke those words at all. No one knows what he "swore" to, since the second oath was administered in private, sans a Bible or even a Koran, for that matter.

Obama has lived by the expression "know your enemies," in his quest to learn our laws and our history...which is why he cares little about knowing the truth. He has considered the U.S. an enemy since his mother dragged him around the world and taught him only the evils of America, not the greatness, heart, and soul of our country. He never developed a true love of the U.S.(which has given him and his ungrateful wife so much), it has always been foreign to him no matter where he grew up, and he has focused on our faults more than our strengths. Just like those who criticize our country, Obama has shown that he really holds a great disdain for us, our laws, and our accomplishments. As a student he only learned just enough to try and accomplish his goal (which is why he was a poor student, obviously) that has always been to launch an attack on the American system of government and the principles upon which our Nation was based.

23 posted on 04/03/2012 2:06:00 PM PDT by CitizenM (Obama studied our Constution out of hate for America, not out of love for our laws.)
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To: choctaw man
He never took Civics in school.

I suspect that he *did* take Civics in school. The operative question would be, where? Indonesia comes to mind...

the infowarrior

24 posted on 04/03/2012 2:22:06 PM PDT by infowarrior
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

He isn’t ignorant of the law, he just hopes everyone else is.


25 posted on 04/03/2012 2:28:35 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not a Matter of Opinion)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. Well, this is a good example….”

This is his longer version of “I won.”

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_month_by_month

“In March, 26% of voters Strongly Approved of the president’s job performance, showing no change since February but up two points from January. The number who Strongly Disapproved of the job Obama is doing was at 41% in March, up two points from last month.”

He’s tanking and he knows it.


26 posted on 04/03/2012 2:48:42 PM PDT by tumblindice (our new, happy lives)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

just remember that he gave up his license to practice law so he would not be disbarred and you can see that this supposed Constitutional lawyer may be so in his words, but not in any stretch of the truth. Seems he has run amok of the law in the past, so it gives his credentials little legitimacy to say the least.


27 posted on 04/03/2012 2:51:37 PM PDT by Shery (in APO Land)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Lower Court is fighting back....There have been several threads posted, but a couple have disappeared. Let you do your own search for fear the one I link will.


28 posted on 04/03/2012 3:13:14 PM PDT by hoosiermama
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