Sunday, July 8, 2012

Krauthammer: The imperial presidency revisited

Charles Krauthammer  "... the court’s Arizona immigration decision, issued three days earlier, remains far more significant than appreciated. It was generally viewed as mixed or ambiguous because the Justice Department prevailed in striking down three of the law’s provisions. However, regarding the law’s central and most controversial element — requiring officers to inquire into the immigration status of anyone picked up for some other violation — the ruling was definitive, indeed unanimous.

No liberal-conservative divide here. The smackdown was 8-0. (Justice Elena Kagan recused herself.) Not a single justice found merit in the administration’s claim that this “show me your papers” provision constituted an impermissible preemption of federal authority.
Political Cartoons by Michael Ramirez
...."The Department of Health and Human Services issues Obamacare regulations treading so heavily on the free-exercise rights of Catholic institutions that Obama’s own allies rebel. The new regulation concocted to tame the firestorm blithely orders private insurers to provide free contraceptives to employees of the objecting religious institutions. By what possible authority does a president order private companies to provide free services? To say nothing of the 1,200 Obamacare waivers granted with royal arbitrariness according to the (political) whims of an HHS secretary."

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