Cruz: Obama’s View of Federal Power ‘Knows Virtually No Bounds’ (Wants Power to Choose Pastors?)

CNS News ^ | 04/13/2013 | By Elizabeth Harrington

[SeekAndFind]

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released a report documenting attempted abuses of federal power by the Obama administration on Tuesday, saying the administration “knows virtually no bounds.”

Cruz points to Obama’s own Supreme Court appointees, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, to make his case:

"When President Obama’s own Supreme Court nominees join their colleagues in unanimously rejecting the Administration’s call for broader federal power six times in just over one year, the inescapable conclusion is that the Obama Administration’s view of federal power knows virtually no bounds,” the senator’s report said.

The Obama administration’s over-reaching includes attempts to electronically track Americans without cause and deny churches the right to choose their own ministers.

Cruz, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on The Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, said the cases “demonstrate an astonishing view of federal power on behalf of the Obama Administration.”

“If the Department of Justice had won these cases, the federal government would be able to electronically track all of our movements, fine us without a fair hearing, dictate who churches choose as ministers, displace state laws based on the President’s whims, bring debilitating lawsuits against individuals based on events that occurred years ago, and destroy a person’s private property without just compensation,” he said.

“Luckily, we do not have to live in that America,” Cruz added.

In one case, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC, the Justice Department argued it “had the right to oversee a church’s choosing of ministers,” which even Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan called “amazing.”

Cruz highlights one exchange between Kagan and Leondra Kruger, a DOJ lawyer, in which Kagan asked, “Do you believe, Ms. Kruger, that a church has a right that’s grounded in the Free Exercise Clause and/or the Establishment Clause to institutional autonomy with respect to its employees?”

“We don’t see that line of church autonomy principles in the Religious Clause jurisprudence as such,” Kruger said.

Kagan, who served as Solicitor General under Obama, said it was “amazing” that DOJ believed that “neither the Free Exercise Clause nor the Establishment Clause has anything to say about a church’s relationship with its own employees.”

The court went on to unanimously reject the DOJ’s claim, saying, “We cannot accept the remarkable view that the Religion Clauses have nothing to say about a religious organization's freedom to select its own ministers.”

In another case, United States v. Jones, the DOJ argued that the federal government could attach a GPS system to a car without cause, despite the Fourth Amendment’s restrictions on unreasonable searches and seizures.

The DOJ said it did not constitute a search because a “GPS system is already in public view and a person should not expect it to be private.” The court again unanimously rejected its claim.

“The Obama Administration, through its Department of Justice, has repeatedly advocated a radical theory of sweeping federal power,” the report says.

Cruz said he will continue to document cases “as long as this Administration continues seeking ways to expand its power in direct violation of Americans’ constitutional rights.”

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks SeekAndFind.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ... points to Obama’s own Supreme Court appointees, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, to make his case: "When President Obama’s own Supreme Court nominees join their colleagues in unanimously rejecting the Administration’s call for broader federal power six times in just over one year, the inescapable conclusion is that the Obama Administration’s view of federal power knows virtually no bounds,” the senator’s report said... “If the Department of Justice had won these cases, the federal government would be able to electronically track all of our movements, fine us without a fair hearing, dictate who churches choose as ministers, displace state laws based on the President’s whims, bring debilitating lawsuits against individuals based on events that occurred years ago, and destroy a person’s private property without just compensation,” he said... Cruz highlights one exchange between Kagan and Leondra Kruger, a DOJ lawyer, in which Kagan asked, “Do you believe, Ms. Kruger, that a church has a right that’s grounded in the Free Exercise Clause and/or the Establishment Clause to institutional autonomy with respect to its employees?” “We don’t see that line of church autonomy principles in the Religious Clause jurisprudence as such,” Kruger said... The court went on to unanimously reject the DOJ’s claim, saying, “We cannot accept the remarkable view that the Religion Clauses have nothing to say about a religious organization's freedom to select its own ministers.”

That must be why there was 24/7 coverage in all 57 states of the controversy, and discussions about grounds for Zero's impeachment on NPR, PBS, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, and NBC.

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Fell off my chair. Danger lurks in every corner.

[Mrs. Don-o]

It amazes me, actually, that while the Obama Administration is hell-bent on destroying us all, the Free Republic Religion Forum is (too often) hell-bent on destroying each other.

Know what I mean?

[hondact200]

The Demoncrats are getting cocky. It is apparent even at the local level. In the rural city I live in Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Mayor and City Council is doing many aspects against the rule of the law.
1. council members have been serving while in violation of state statutes - 2 taxpayers contacted the Attorney General’s Office about legality turned over to County prosecuting Attorney - both council members had to resign.
2. council meet, short of 2 council members and eliminated 1/2 of the police force without having a quorum of voters to make for the vote legally sought after. 2 taxpayers have sought an injunction through said prosecuting attorney’s office.
3. Mayor whom serves on the downtown development authority spent money foolishly on a property that he taxpayers did not want.

This is just three examples there are more coming to light.

[TArcher]

In one case, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC, the Justice Department argued it “had the right to oversee a church’s choosing of ministers,” which even Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan called “amazing.”

 

 

Same Ol'...

"...who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time;

 

...

 

 that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them. "

 

"I HAVE SWORN UPON THE ALTAR OF GOD ETERNAL HOSTILITY TO EVERY FORM OF TYRANNY OVER THE MIND OF MAN"

--The Virginia Act For Establishing Religious Freedom
--Thomas Jefferson, 1786

http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/sacred/vaact.html

 

[Eleutheria5]

He’s not stupid. He’s got an end game that will somehow give him absolute power. He might be crazy, but not stupid.

[N-R-T]

Are you speaking of the National Crisis Yet To Come that will require elections to be cancelled?

[SisterK]

You called it correctly. Very correctly.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!