Shame on you, Mr. President

As my brother isn’t ranting as much these days, perhaps I should step in.  President Obama’s comments Wednesday during the State of the Union address concerning the Supreme Court were nothing short of outrageous.

This is a president who knows how to bow to foreign dignitaries, but doesn’t know how to address the Supreme Court of the United States. Blindsiding them on national television is one thing, but doing so with clearly erroneous information is quite another.

In many posts about what the President has said about Obamacare, I gave him a free ride, figuring that he hadn’t had time to read the bills. But on this one I won’t.

Obama is an attorney, and as such, if he wishes to be critical of a court’s opinion he must, at the very least, have taken the time to read it. Everything he told the American public about the opinion is flat out wrong. The opinion does not alter the law prohibiting foreign corporations from contributing to political campaigns one iota. Thus, exhorting Congress to change the law is nonsensical.  And, pandering to the American public is disgusting.

Were he one of my former law students, I would have called him immediately after the address, and, assuming he took my call, I would have said the same thing to him directly. He acted with all of the poise, grace and intelligence of a school yard bully. I expect more from my president.

He owes the Supreme Court, if not the American public, an apology.

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

4 Comments

  1. donh on January 29, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    Justice Ginsburg is in  poor health. She looked as if she was going to croak right there on the  floor. President Obama should be charged with attempted murder for sandbagging the Supreme Court like that. Jim has been easy on the President lately. I hope it is just doctors orders. I worry the Republican party is going to lurch back to the John McCain agenda of can't we all just get along  and cooperate with the devil . Taking back some  power with 41 Senate votes is no cause to make peace. 2 Corinthians  6:15 "Christ and Belial are contrary one to the other; they have opposite interests and designs, so that it is impossible there should be any concord or agreement " We have a 1.3 trillion annual deficit that threatens to turn this country into Haiti in short term. You are either with those who want to destroy this country or with those who want to save it.



  2. hwhat on January 29, 2010 at 8:40 pm

    Oh my gosh, the audacity(!) of this President to disrespect the Supreme Court was the worst part of the speech, not to mention that his comments were wrong!   Huge mistake.



  3. gillie28 on January 29, 2010 at 9:51 pm

    A really great rant: short, clear and succinct.  I especially like the point about the President bowing (with a little scraping also) to world leaders and publicly disrespecting the Supremes at a venue that is particularly known to represent a symbol of National unity. 



  4. Dimsdale on January 30, 2010 at 6:20 am

    The prez is the living manifestation of hubris overriding the age old quip "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt".

     

    The doubt is gone.  "Constitutional scholar" my sweet bippy!



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