Proving once again that this country in in the very best of hands, former constitutional law instructor Barack Obama yesterday showed that he knows nothing about the subject. You have to feel sorry for the people who paid big bucks to go to an elite law school and got stuck with him.http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/02/us-obama-healthcare-idUSBRE8310WP20120402
"Ultimately, I am 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," Obama said at a news conference with the leaders of Canada and Mexico.
Ignoring Obama's hyperbolic description of a 219-212 vote in the House as being a "strong majority", any real law-school graduate would know (apparently unless you had Obama for Con Law) that the Supreme Court has been overturning laws passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress ever since Marbury v. Madison in 1803, when the Supreme Court struck down part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, which was one of the first bills passed by the first Congress (and which passed by a lot bigger majority than 50.8% to 49.2%). What Obama claimed to be "unprecedented" and "extraordinary" has actually been one of the primary activities of the Supreme Court for almost its entire life.
Obama tried to carefully skate around his blunder in answer to a reporter's question today:
Reporter: "Mr. President, you said yesterday that it would be 'unprecedented' for a Supreme Court to overturn laws passed by an elected Congress. But that is exactly what the court's done during its entire existence. If the court were to overturn the individual mandate, what would you do, or propose to do, for the 30 million people who wouldn't have health care after that ruling?"
Obama: "Well, first of all, let me be very specific. Um <pause>, we have not seen a court overturn <pause> a <pause> law that was passed <pause> by Congress on <pause> a <pause> economic issue, like health care, that I think most people would clearly consider commerce. A law like that has not been overturned <pause> at least since Lochner, right? So we're going back to the '30s, pre-New Deal."
However, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that it wanted to determine whether Obama's statement represented the current view of his administration.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504564_162-57408827-504564/appeals-court-fires-back-at-obamas-comments-on-health-care-case/
In the escalating battle between the administration and the judiciary, a federal appeals court apparently is calling the president's bluff -- ordering the Justice Department to answer by Thursday whether the Obama Administration believes that the courts have the right to strike down a federal law, according to a lawyer who was in the courtroom.
The order, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, appears to be in direct response to the president's comments yesterday about the Supreme Court's review of the health care law. . . . The panel ordered the Justice Department to submit a three-page, single-spaced letter by noon Thursday addressing whether the Executive Branch believes courts have such power, the lawyer said.
The court order makes sense only if you believe that Obama is competent. By now, most of America should know better.