Dissing Justices Came Easy For Agenda-Driven Obama
Denigration: President Obama tarnished his office during the 2010 State of the Union by attacking the Supreme Court justices sitting before him. They were just "another group of Republicans" to Obama, says a new book.
In Federalist No. 51, on "the Proper Checks and Balances" of the Constitution, James Madison wrote that the judicial branch's lifetime tenures should "destroy all sense of dependence on the authority conferring them."
According to Madison, "In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself."
President Obama certainly felt no obligation to control himself when he stood before Congress and members of the highest court in the land and declared that in the landmark Citizens United ruling the week before, which protected First Amendment political speech, the justices had caused U.S. elections to begin to be "bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities."
Justice Samuel Alito was so taken aback by Obama's politicizing, he abandoned the expressionless stoicism the justices traditionally adhere to and quietly responded "that's not true" before the TV cameras.
Now a new book by New Yorker legal writer and CNN commentator Jeffrey Toobin provides insight into Obama's unprecedented attack. In "The Oath," which examines the dynamics between the high court and the Obama White House, Toobin writes:
"The administration's anger about Citizens United was such that . .. the Obama team simply regarded the Supreme Court majority as another group of Republicans, deserving no greater deference than GOP senators or congressmen."
"Another group of Republicans" — another source of power to be defeated. Think of this the next time Obama tells you he's "ready and willing to work" with Republicans in his second term. |
