Supreme Contempt

Recently President Obama made this remarkable statement, “Ultimately, 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.” For someone reputed to be a former professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago this statement is hard to explain. Any high school student in a sophomore American History class knows there are many precedents for the Supreme Court making laws passed by Congress null and void. As a matter of fact, in the system of government tradition has delivered to us overturning laws as unconstitutional has been an important power of the Supreme Court for more than two hundred years.

And if the primary content of the President’s statement isn’t strange enough the supporting information is wrong. Obamacare wasn't passed by a strong majority in Congress. In reality the final vote in the House vote was 220 to 215. Every Republican and thirty four Democrats voted against the law. In the Senate the vote was sixty Democrats and Independents voting for and thirty nine Republicans voting against. The Democrats, even though they controlled both houses of Congress knew they would lose enough of their own members that it was going to be a close vote so they moved the bill outside the regular order of business and used a legislative maneuver known as reconciliation to avoid giving the Republicans the opportunity to filibuster the law.

What is the context of these current pressure tactics being used by the executive branch on the judicial branch?

Soon after taking office in 1829, President Andrew Jackson a long time Indian fighter spearheaded one of his signature pieces of legislation through Congress: the Indian Removal Act. This act gave the president the power to negotiate treaties with the various tribes which still existed in America East of the Mississippi. These treaties, often accepted either under duress or under questionable circumstances seized the lands of the tribes and forced them to move West to the Indian Territory in what is today Oklahoma. The time for fighting had passed and most of the tribes quietly left their ancestral lands.

One tribe decided to try another route. The Cherokee Nation had adopted the ways of the Europeans. They devised their own written language and wrote their own Constitution. They had their own plantations, printing presses, and businesses. They also had their own lawyers and instead of going on the warpath as their ancestors had done they went to court to fight the orders from the State of Georgia which dispossessed them of their land.

In two cases; Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the United States Supreme Court considered whether or not it had the power to enforce the rights of Native American nations in disputes between them and the states. In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, the Court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to review the claims of any Indian nation within the United States. In Worcester v. Georgia, the Court ruled that only the Federal Government not the states, had the power to regulate the Indian nations.

What the ruling in Worcester v. Georgia meant was that Georgia could not legally seize the Cherokee lands. It was at this junction when referring to the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Marshall that President Andrew Jackson made one his most famous statements, “Mr. Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it!” Instead of enforcing the ruling the Federal government joined in and the result was the Trail of Tears as the Cherokee lost their lands and moved west.

Franklin D. Roosevelt legislating Keynesian economic philosophy in the New Deal sought to end the Depression through government spending and central control. With massive majorities in both houses of Congress the president’s agenda was enacted as quickly as possible. Then less than three years after the New Deal began to transform America the Supreme Court began overturning some of the central portions of Roosevelt's program

In response to this resistance to his vision for what should be done FDR decided to pack the court with Justices who would support his laws. What he proposed was that for any justice over the age of seventy who refused to retire, the president could appoint a new justice to sit beside the current justice and do his work. If his plan had been adopted and none of the then current Justices retired he would have been able to appoint six new Justices. Since he couldn’t force the conservative justices to retire he sought in this way to outnumber them and thus change the ideological complexion of the court. As the president moved ahead in his attempt to pack the court the Supremes started ruling in his favor which eventually stopped the need for his effort to influence the court through overwhelming appointments. Then time and attrition did what he had tried to do with legislation. By 1941, four justices had retired and two had died consequently by the end of his presidency seven of the nine justices were Roosevelt appointees.

Now we come full circle to President Obama and his obvious attempt to belittle and intimidate the court. Should anyone be surprised? This is nothing more than standard operating procedure for a Chicago politician. It is also a normal technique for a community organizer who has been trained in the tactics of Saul Alinsky. No, we shouldn’t be surprised but we could have expected more of anyone who has been entrusted with the highest office in the land. It is just such crude strong-arm tactics such as this which open Mr. Obama up to charges of being a typical South Chicago thug. If he wishes to avoid such charges he needs to avoid such actions.

The above brief review clearly shows that this was not the first attempt of a president to influence the court. However coming from one who is constantly extolled as a constitutional scholar it is certainly disquieting. As a constitutional scholar the president would obviously know what he said was incorrect leaving no other interpretation to his words than a conscious effort to alter the traditional system of checks and balances and the power relationship between the separate branches of the federal government.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College. He is the Historian of the Future and the author of the History of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens

Wanted Community Organizers No Experience Needed

Talk about a man-caused disaster have you looked at the recovery lately? The Republicans under the Bush dynasty and the Clinton interlewd paved the way for the current debacle of fiscal debauchery. The only thing growing is the government. Have the Liberals staged a second revolution? Khrushchev predicted the Soviet Union would bury us and since they’re now on the trash heap of history is the Liberal Politburo of leftwing academics, corrupt politicians and their lamestream propaganda machine digging the grave instead?
The Obama administration’s takeover of America’s health care system, the financial industry, the biggest player in the insurance industry, major manufacturing the coming Cap-N-Trade boondoggle, and the soon-to-be-launched drive for import-a-voter immigration reform is a direct assault upon the productive designed to hobble their economic power and limit their personal freedom. The statists know the economically prosperous and individually free people of America stand in the way of their plans to create a centrally-planned economy and the regimented society it requires.
The Cloward-Piven Strategy for overwhelming the American constitutional system of limited government was formulated in the game-changing 60s. The leading tactician of the left, Saul Alinsky embraced and promoted this strategy. President Obama taught Alinsky’s principles at the University of Chicago and recently Christ Matthews in one of his softball interviews with a fellow liberal hailed Alinsky as one of “our” heroes. Applying Alinsky’s methods the cabal of liberal community organizers, corrupt politicians, unions and thinly veiled criminal organizations such as ACORN labor to bring our system to its knees. America is staggering under runaway spending while the Fed turns the dollar into monopoly money. The TARP rip-off has turned into an inexhaustible slush fund of crony capitalist corruption, the stimulus bill isn’t stimulating and the uncertainty of future governmental action discourages anyone from investing anything anywhere. Why would anyone want to overwhelm the system? So they can re-boot the system in their own image.
The contempt the party in power has for the American people and the process of a free people seems to know no bounds. Our president believes the Constitution is a flawed document because it doesn’t deal with the re-distribution of wealth. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi thinks it’s a joke when asked where in the Constitution she finds the authority for her actions. Henry Waxman a leading Democrat Congressman mocked people who dared ask that their representatives read the bank-busting game-changing bills they are passing in the middle of the night, saying unless you have two lawyers and two days you can’t understand them anyway. In his contempt for the American people Waxman even went so far as to hire a speed reader to read a bill in Congress to the laughter of his colleagues. Harry Reid the majority leader of the party that invented Jim Crow Laws and separate but equal the party of Bull Connor has the nerve to compare anyone resisting his attempt to nationalize the greatest medical system in the world with those who opposed the end of slavery. As the country sinks into the economic chaos their spending and regulatory strangulation cause they’ll cast themselves as the framers of a new vision, a new re-made America.
While its Democrats currently shoving collectivism down America’s throat. Remember McCain advocates health care reform, cap-n-trade, and immigration reform. The two major parties are two heads of the same bird of prey an oligarchy of power elites with its foot on the throat of America’s traditional meritocracy. The Republicrats are both run by Progressives dedicated to the transformation of America.
If these agents of change succeed in destroying the economy and neutering the Constitution what will protect the freedom and opportunity of America? How do we save the Constitution, re-institute capitalism and stop our slide into the incentive-killing swamp of collectivism? We need to organize. Use the social networks to communicate and connect. Support local patriot groups. It’s critical that we remain peaceful but it’s just as critical that we use our constitutional rights of assembly and petition to gather our strength and present our case for the traditional American system of limited government, individual freedom and economic opportunity.
Providentially at this fateful juncture we have an articulate spokesman with a national megaphone. Glenn Beck broadcasts every day on hundreds of radio stations and on the Fox News Channel. He launched the 9-12 Project providing a virtual gathering place for all Americans who seek the unity of 9-12-01. Of course Rush Limbaugh is the founding father of conservative talk and always a guiding light and the most respected political commentator and theoretician. Others such as Coulter, Hannity, Ingrahm, Dobbs and Savage are inspiring and educational. The Tea Party Movement is morphing into hundreds of local variants. Get Out of Our House (GOOOH) is building a grass-roots base for political activism. Sara Palin provides some political visibility for the average American. Yet it’s Beck leading the way. If you aren’t watching his daily television program you’re missing some of the best researched and in-depth investigative reporting ever presented. Tune in. Turn on. And throw the bums out!
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College and History for the American Public University System. http://drrobertowens.com © 2009 Robert R. Owens dr.owens@comcast.net