Last week, before Supreme Court oral arguments began on Obamacare, we noted that liberals in the media had already started a campaign to delegitimize an adverse decision in advance. We hardly expected to see scores of elected Democrats, led by President Obama, join in this rhetorical charge against the high court this week. Obama, speaking to reporters on Monday, said that overturning the health care law’s individual mandate would be “an unprecedented, extraordinary step” by the justices that would be a “good example” of “judicial activism.”
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Obama was following up on a steady drumbeat of similar comments by prominent Democrats ever since last week’s oral arguments cast doubt on the administration’s defense of his signature law. Former President Bill Clinton said on NBC of the oral arguments, “It was an unusually politicized discussion.” Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said, “This is the most political Supreme Court we’ve ever had.”
At a joint press conference with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. warned that, “For the court to strike down this law would be to presume the powers of the Congress and abandon its role as an impartial and deliberate decider of constitutional law.” Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., suggested on MSNBC that Obama may want to run against the court if they overturn the law. This line has been dutifully amplified by the Obama administration’s liberal allies in the media.
This is nothing new for Obama. During his 2010 State of the Union speech, he took the rare step of scolding the Supreme Court as justices looked on in the House chamber. Of their decision in the Citizens United campaign finance case: “With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections. I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities.”
Importantly, when Obama uttered this challenge to the court’s legitimacy — presaging the Democrats’ 2010 rallying cry against “secret donors” — Justice Anthony Kennedy, the author of Citizens United, sat right in front of him. Kennedy, the Supreme Court’s swing justice, was stone-faced. Now, with his proudest achievement likely at Kennedy’s mercy, Obama has not shied away but has in fact doubled down on his attacks against the court.
That he would take aim this way at our nation’s fair administration of justice should be viewed as a sign of weakness, not strength. The president who says his agenda “can’t wait” for Congress now won’t even wait for the Supreme Court to rule before impugning its integrity. When the Founding Fathers created the Constitution’s system of checks and balances, they did it precisely to protect us from such leaders.
