Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Obama echoes conservatives on 'activist' court
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | April 8, 2012 | by Dan Freedman

Posted on 04/08/2012 5:28:56 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

It may be too little too late, but the Obama administration is using conservative legal ideas to win support from Supreme Court justices - and the general public - for its signature health care law.

Obama even invoked the conservative mantra on "judicial restraint" and "judicial activism," and how conservatives traditionally decry "an unelected group" of judges overturning "a duly constituted and passed law."

Obama "knows that nothing he says will matter to them at this point," said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Irvine School of Law. "I think it was a statement with a political goal, not a legal one."

But regardless of timing, the points are valid, said Vincent Bonventre, law professor at Albany (N.Y.) Law School who believes the law should be upheld.

"The conservatives' own philosophy suggests they should uphold Obamacare," Bonventre said. Respect for court precedents and deference to elected officials are "fundamental principles of conservative justices."

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: failure; obamacare; scotus; socialism
... deference to elected officials are "fundamental principles of conservative justices."

Deference to the Constitution should be the fundamental principle of ALL justices. Not temporary elected officials. The congress that passed Obamacare is gone, but their legacy lives on.

1 posted on 04/08/2012 5:29:01 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Where’s the double bucket BARF alert?


2 posted on 04/08/2012 5:37:04 AM PDT by McBuff
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Of course, the one thing they leave out is the sworn duty of ALL officers of government, at all levels, in the judicial, the legislative, and the executive branches, to SUPPORT THE CONSTITUTION.


3 posted on 04/08/2012 5:49:56 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (You can be a Romney Republican or you can be a conservative. You can't be both. Pick one.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer; ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas; stephenjohnbanker; DoughtyOne; calcowgirl; Gilbo_3; ...
RE :”The conservatives’ own philosophy suggests they should uphold Obamacare,” Bonventre said. Respect for court precedents and deference to elected officials are “fundamental principles of conservative justices.

Does this mean that the liberals on the court will rule to over-turn the Obama-care law under his logic?

Or that the liberal judges will rule to keep all the laws that Obama/Holder are suing to overturn, and DOMA?

No, this lib writer only has rules for the Republicans to follow.

Classic Alinksy tactic is to frame the other side's rules and then claim they are breaking them.

4 posted on 04/08/2012 5:58:48 AM PDT by sickoflibs (Obama : "I will just make insurance companies give you health care for 'free, What Mandates??' ")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer
mantra on "judicial restraint" and "judicial activism,"...

0bama showing clearly he lumps them together. This "constitutional (sic) law professor" thinks these two terms are one and the same thing.

5 posted on 04/08/2012 6:04:34 AM PDT by C210N (Mitt "Severe Etch-a-Sketch" mcRominate-me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

It is going to be lies 24/7 for the next 7 months.

By the end - the media will just be making things up.


6 posted on 04/08/2012 6:57:37 AM PDT by Eldon Tyrell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Humans are fallible, which is exactly why judicial review is needed in the first place. If we could count on Congress to always adhere to the Constitution, there would never have been any need for SCOTUS to overturn more than 150 laws. But by the same token, SCOTUS itself is fallible, which is why, if need be, Congress had end-around SCOTUS by enacting amendments to the Constitution. But this is a very laborious process (accomplished in the period after the enactment of the original Bill of Rights with only about 1/10 the frequency that SCOTUS has turned down unconstitutional laws).

Thus, another crucial check on SCOTUS’s momentous power to declare laws unconstitutional is SCOTUS itself. The current Court always can decide that a past Court was wrong in making a particular decision. Indeed, it was just such a change of mind that led SCOTUS in the 1930’s to reverse its earlier judgments on Commerce Clause cases. But there’s nothing “conservative” about making those earlier decisions sacrosanct and beyond further reversal (especially since those earlier decisions themselves were the reversal of decisions only a few decades old).

I don’t think it will ever happen, but it’s absolutely within the prerogative of the Court to reverse its earlier ruling that Social Security, for example, was constitutional. And the basis for doing so would be reliance on an originalist understanding of the Constitution. What’s conservative is using the Constitution rather than ideological druthers to determine whether a law should be struck down.


7 posted on 04/08/2012 7:49:41 AM PDT by DrC
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer
An "activist court" is one that does not adhere to the US Constitution.

He has perverted the meaning to be a court that strikes down his unconstitutional laws.

8 posted on 04/08/2012 8:42:17 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Over half of U.S. murders are of black people, and 90% of them are committed by other black people.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer
overturning "a duly constituted and passed law.

How clever it was of him to use a word for "made" which also implies constitutionality to the uninformed listener.
9 posted on 04/08/2012 8:48:28 AM PDT by andyk (Go Juan Pablo!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sickoflibs; ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas; stephenjohnbanker; DoughtyOne; calcowgirl; Gilbo_3

SF Chronic.....


10 posted on 04/08/2012 9:44:23 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer
... deference to elected officials are "fundamental principles of conservative justices."

Straw man.

11 posted on 04/08/2012 10:50:52 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (I tried to buy a hoodie today but the store manager said they had all been shoplifted.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Eldon Tyrell

” It is going to be lies 24/7 for the next 7 months.”

No distinction here.....we have had over 3 years of lies

24/7 365.


12 posted on 04/08/2012 11:00:11 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson