Pirate's Cove

Suddenly, the Constitution matters to the NY Times, per Martin H. Redish

Trump Is Not Above the Courts

So much has happened during these early weeks of President Trump’s administration that it is easy to lose sight of the single event that may well have the most powerful and troubling impact on American democratic society.

I speak of the administration’s startling assertion following its first travel ban, which was blocked by the courts, not merely that the president’s executive order limiting immigration from seven nations was constitutional, but that the president is actually immune from judicial review of the constitutionality of his action. The president’s lawyers explicitly made this argument before the Ninth Circuit, and the presidential counselor Stephen Miller has asserted that presidential power over immigration cannot be questioned.

The constitutionality of the president’s bans on travel from parts of the Muslim world — the most recent one was blocked this week, by federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland — gives rise to complex issues on which reasonable people can differ. But what is not in dispute is the ability of the judiciary to determine their constitutionality, free from control by the executive branch of government. Indeed, not only is such thinking largely inconsistent with over 200 years of established American constitutional practice, but it also ignores and undermines the genius of the Constitution’s framers, who saw the judiciary as perhaps the most important deterrent to tyrannical power. By “tyranny” the framers did not mean simply the abuse of power. Rather, it is the very accumulation of such power that they saw as the essence of tyranny, because once the power is accumulated, the harm has already taken place.

One does have to love that, after eight years of Obama accumulating power, Democrats are suddenly Very Concerned about the Constitution. We can debate the Constitutionality of the travel ban….personally, I think he should have moved on after the first, and just done it administrationally, by not bringing in all the refugees…but, what about this

• A federal judge said his funding for Obamacare was unconstitutional.
• A court was told Obama’s gun-control plans “exceed the powers of the president.”
• Obama Administration Ignored Court Order On Immigration
• Critics Protest Obama Administration Overriding Court To Halt Dakota Access Pipeline
• Obama lawyers asked secret court to ignore public court’s decision on spying
• White House To Ignore Court Ruling, Keep Handing Out Obamacare Subsidies

Those are just a few examples of when Obama blew off court orders. Then there are all the lists on the number of ways Obama has ignored the Constitution, which, for the most part, the Credentialed Media, like the NY Times, couldn’t have cared less.

Of course, the media is Very Concerned that Trump might use Executive Orders in the same manner as Obama, mostly to rescind Obama’s often un-Constitutional orders. When Trump is actually ignoring orders from courts like Obama did, then the media might have a case. But, they’d have to explain why they had no complaints about Obama doing the same.

Crossed at Right Wing News.