April 3, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today responded to Barack Obama’s contention that “overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress” was “an unprecedented, extraordinary step:
“Woe unto law students who took Obama’s constitutional law class when he was a lecturer at University of Chicago Law School. His telling of history, where the Supreme Court would be ‘unprecedented’ in striking down a duly enacted law, ignores the entire 209-year history of jurisprudence since Marbury v. Madison. That was when the Court famously asserted the implicit power of judicial review to strike down acts of Congress that exceeded constitutional authority, writing in the words of Chief Justice John Marshall that the Court’s role was to ‘say what the law is.’ What was Obama even teaching?
“The fact is Obama had no problem when the Warren Court undid precedent—he even praised it while suggesting it did not go far enough.
“Now the Court is signaling it may overturn its 70-year experiment with the Commerce Clause dating back to Wickard v. Filburn, which was one of the first dramatic expansions of Congress’ power in that area. In that case, the Court invented the doctrine that even if commerce was not taking place among the several states — even if it was a farmer who was growing food merely for his own consumption — it could still be regulated.
“Obamacare is the natural extension of that doctrine, where even the passive decision to not purchase health care is being deemed to affect interstate commerce in some capacity. If the Court decides to undo this near-centurial expansion of totalitarianism, good for them. Godspeed.
“But for Obama to get on his high horse and complain that such a decision would be ‘unprecedented’ is just nonsensical. Now he is attempting to intimidate the Court by delegitimizing it. This is what you’d expect from a thug dictator like Hugo Chavez or Robert Mugabe, not from the President of the United States. Overtly attacking the Court in such a brazen way is beneath the dignity of his high office.”
Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.