The Nation has faced constitutional crises before. It faces another now. The President of the United States has taken a course under which the Executive will predominate over the Legislative and Judicial.
The last serious constitutional crisis occurred when FDR threatened to "pack the Court," as a means of changing the outcome of the Supreme Court's decisions on the socialist recovery programs pushed by FDR and enacted by Congress. There, the Court may well have decided deliberately to give ground rather than allow FDR to destroy the Court. In any event, once FDR's plan was made known, the Court suddenly found a new philosophy of judicial decision-making that gave it the way to approve previously unconstitutional legislative approaches.
In the current crisis, Obama has donned a crown, and feigns -- perhaps believes himself to be -- a king. He ignores the Constitution. He has done this by appointing persons required by law to be approved by Congress using his recess appointment power. But three federal courts have all held that the recess appointment power is narrow, and only allows such appointments in very limited circumstances, none of which obtain in the case of Obama's illegal appointments. On top of that, having been adjudged unlawful appointments, the National Labor Relations Board has continued to conduct its business as though it had a quorum to do business and authority.
King Obama then decides, without statutory authority to do so, that the employer mandate will not be enforced for a year following its effective date, essentially rendering that provision nugatory. His Majesty then announced that he would VETO legislation authorizing him to suspend the employer mandate if Congress passed it. Thus, the King asserts an Executive power to suspend the effect of laws -- doing so unlawfully as a renegade -- and directly rejects the curative enactment that Congress offers.
Now, Prince Eric of DOJ (the Attorney General of the United States), undoubtedly in service of King Barry's will, has decided that he will enforce a law struck down by the United States Supreme Court, a section of the Voting Rights Act. At the end of the recent Court Term, the Supreme Court issued a decision in a case and, as part of its ruling, struck down part of the Voting Rights Act requiring States to obtain pre-clearance from the Department of Justice or a court for changes to laws affecting the exercise of the elective franchise. AFTER the decision, Prince Eric the Holder has announced that he will force Texas to comply with the judicially invalidated law.
Our Nation's path is marked with moments that were freighted with tension, danger to national unity, and searing disharmony. How the States, the People, and the federal government manage those moments frames our futures. Just as Dred Scott framed the Civil War. Just as the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination framed the Reconstruction. Just as the Court packing plan framed our national dalliance with socialism.
So how will we frame our future in response to King Obama and Prince Eric's threatening hegemony?
