THE FOUNDATION
"Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, 1823TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
The Border Isn't Open?
The Obama administration is looking for places to house the recent influx of illegal aliens. Protesters blocked a busload of illegals in Murrieta, California, last week, but reports are the feds plan to forcibly place them there today. The New York Times reports, "As federal officials have begun to send the expected 240,000 migrants and 52,000 unaccompanied minors who have crossed the border illegally in recent months in the Rio Grande Valley to cities around the county, Murrieta so far is the only place that has managed to turn them away." DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson swears, "Our message to those who come here illegally: Our border is not open to illegal migration." That's a message they want to send to critics here in the U.S., but it's despite all evidence to the contrary. The flood of illegals is working to Democrats' advantage. More...Comment | Share
VA Problems Run Deep
Veterans Affairs whistleblower Scott Davis explained the attitude problem at the VA, saying, "We don't discuss veterans. We do not work for veterans. That is something that I learned after working there. Our customer is the VA central office, the White House and the Congress. The veterans are not our priority. So whatever the initiatives are or the big ticket items, that is what we focus on." He also told how applications for care were destroyed in order to meet quotas and timelines. But worse, he said, "[W]e actually put incoming applications aside so we could focus on the ACA [ObamaCare] related applications that came in over last summer." It's difficult to put into words how outrageous it is for veterans to be cast aside to create space for ObamaCare. This sort of bureaucratic malfeasance perhaps explains why a veteran died waiting 30 minutes for an ambulance from a hospital only five minutes away. More...Comment | Share
1,296 Pages of Regulations
"As Americans scrambled ahead of the July Fourth holiday weekend on Thursday afternoon, the Department of Health and Human Services released 1,296 pages of new regulations dealing with payment rates to doctors and hospitals," reports the Washington Examiner. "The release came at 4:15 p.m." It's become an almost comical pattern -- it would be funny if not so serious -- for the "most transparent administration in history" to dump onerous regulations when no one is looking. Since regulations are simply another form of taxation, it's fair to say Barack Obama breaks two promises with every one of these surreptitious releases. More...Comment | Share
Hillary the Generous
Hillary Clinton has made numerous speeches at colleges around the nation, and she charges hefty fees for the privilege of hearing her voice -- $200,000 a pop. Students at the University of Nevada Las Vegas want her to return the $225,000 for her upcoming speech in October or they'll protest. But it's all good, she insists, because she gives that money to charity. What charity? "All of the fees have been donated to the Clinton Foundation," she said. Well, yes, of course. As for the poor college students whose exorbitant tuition fees are going in part to Hillary's "charity," she says she's -- wait for it -- fighting for them. "It's been my experience," Clinton pontificated, "That they're not worried about my speaking or my household, they're worried about their own. And that's the kind of debate I think I'm furthering as I go around the country speaking." That's a veiled reference to Democrats' favorite class warfare talking points on "income inequality." Which she's fighting one $200,000 speech at a time.Comment | Share
Winds of Favoritism
Looks like the Obama administration is playing favorites. The Washington Times reports, "Last week, the Fish and Wildlife Service ruffled feathers by issuing what officials called a first-of-its-kind permit that allows a 50-turbine Northern California wind farm to kill up to five golden eagles over five years. In exchange, the developer agreed to retrofit 133 utility poles to reduce eagle deaths by electrocution." This is just an example of the government rewarding one if its darlings. The government is holding up Keystone Pipeline permits over threatening the habitat of the American Burying Beetle, while giving wind energy a free pass. More...Comment | Share
For more, visit Right Hooks.
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
The Cost of the Court's Unanimity
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Achieving consensus has been one of Roberts' chief goals, and in the past year he succeeded in numerous cases -- about half of the Court's decisions last term. The Washington Post reports, "The number of rulings without dissent skyrocketed to rates not seen since the 1940s, and the court's percentage of closely divided decisions dropped to a modern low." In fact, Barack Obama has been on the losing end of an astounding 20 unanimous decisions. Of course, that speaks as much to Obama's incessant overreach as it does to Roberts' diplomacy.
The just-concluded term was particularly brutal for the White House. "President Obama has endured a painful Supreme Court term, suffering a series of bitter defeats at the hands of justices who, at times, took direct aim at his policies," The Hill notes. "The White House found itself on the losing end of most of the term's biggest cases." Whether it was Hobby Lobby, free speech "buffer zones," abuse of recess appointments, or warrants for cell phone searches, the former constitutional lawyer in the Oval Office was either directly rebuked or didn't get what he wanted.
Unfortunately, Roberts' penchant for seeking unanimity leads to needlessly narrow decisions and missed opportunities. For example, though it was a 9-0 decision, June's ruling striking down a Massachusetts anti-pro-life speech law was too limited. Plaintiffs (rightly) claimed the 35-foot "buffer zone" around abortion clinics targeted only pro-life speech since clinic employees were not restricted in any way. Yet in order to win over the Court's leftists, Roberts narrowed the opinion to hold merely that the zone was bigger than necessary. Though four justices thought the zones entirely unconstitutional, the "unanimous" ruling left in tact a precedent upholding more limited zones.
In the recess appointments case, the Court rejected the president's claim to be able to determine when the Senate is in session only to have the justices determine when the Senate is in session. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing the unanimous ruling that was not at all unanimous in its reasoning, established a 10-day minimum for a Senate recess to allow for a presidential recess appointment.
Political analyst George Will explains why Roberts' goal of agreement isn't necessarily desirable: "Unanimity is not only spurious, it is injurious when purchased at the price of compromises that suggest disingenuousness. The Constitution's purposes and architecture were sacrificed twice to produce 9-0 decisions. One denied the obvious -- that Massachusetts' law was written to impede anti-abortion speech. The other flinched from the fact that the Recess Appointments Clause requires judicial enforcement, not Breyer's judicial embroidery to allow continuation of behavior that both elected branches under both parties have found convenient. Two conservative priorities, defending freedom of speech and curtailing arbitrary exercises of presidential power, were undermined by judicial minimalism -- a.k.a. judicial restraint -- that conservatives praise more frequently than thoughtfully."
Such "judicial restraint" was at play in Roberts' infamous gymnastic rewrite of ObamaCare in order to save it. That atrocious ruling remains in a class all by itself.
In short, John Roberts is far preferable as chief justice to many alternatives, but he's not always the constitutional defender we'd like him to be. We appreciate his goal of presenting a united front to limit the political fallout of decisions, but the Supreme Court's duty is first to uphold the Constitution.
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Ukraine Cease-Fire Ends With Little Change
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Read the rest here.
For more, visit Right Analysis.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Peggy Noonan: The Daydream and the Nightmare
- George Will: The Court's Indispensable Role
- John C. Goodman: When the Last Republican Leaves
- Stephen Moore: Teens Need Summer Jobs. Too Bad There Aren't Many.
- Arnold Ahlert: Mapping Our Descent Into the Third World
OPINION IN BRIEF
The Gipper: "The Democrats may remember their lines, but how quickly they forget the lessons of the past."Columnist Peggy Noonan: "Obama doesn't seem to care about his unpopularity, or the decisions he's made that have not turned out well. He doesn't seem concerned. A guess at the reason: He thinks he is right about his essential policies. He is steering the world toward not relying on America. He is steering America toward greater dependence on and allegiance to government. ... He thinks he is in line with the arc of history, that America, for all its stops and starts, for all the recent Supreme Court rulings, has embarked in the long term on governmental and cultural progressivism. Thus in time history will have the wisdom to look back and see him for what he really was: the great one who took every sling and arrow, who endured rising unpopularity, the first black president and the only one made to suffer like this. That's what he's doing by running out the clock: He's waiting for history to get its act together and see his true size."
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Columnist John C. Goodman: "Liberal Democrats tend to believe in an unconstrained political marketplace in which there are very few if any limits on government's ability to hand out favors. Although the term 'dog eat dog competition' was originally applied to the economic marketplace, it more aptly applies to the competition that arises under liberal government. In the conservative world view, people should only deal with one another only using reason, persuasion and voluntary exchange. In the liberal world view, almost everything that happens is the result of coercion. One man's gain is invariably another man's loss. ... Liberalism isn't a political philosophy at all. It's a sociology. For the past 80 years, what we call modern liberalism has been one continuous apology for whatever government was doing to intervene in the economy. In all that time, I believe you can find only one consistent principle: people should have no economic rights vis-à-vis government."
Comedian Argus Hamilton: "Los Angeles went into official mourning after Mexico lost to the Netherlands in the World Cup elimination round in Brazil. The stadium in Rio held over sixty thousand Mexican nationals cheering on their team. This proves a huge point: They can go south as well."
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform -- Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen -- standing in harm's way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.
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