This week has been dominated by discussions about who should replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court and who should control the nominating process. Republicans made a mistake, in my opinion, by coming out early and demanding that President Obama should defer the nomination of a Scalia replacement to the next president.
What were they thinking? The Constitution clearly provides that the sitting president has the authority, some would argue the duty, to nominate Supreme Court replacements upon the retirement or death of any sitting members. There is simply no confusion about this.
And who on the Republican side would possibly think President Obama would not pounce on this opportunity to flip the Supreme Court from a generally 5-4 conservative vote to 5-4 liberal? There was absolutely no reason for Republicans to go on the record that they would not consider, much less vote on, anyone Obama might nominate. This was a GOP blunder.
I could go on with this line of thinking, but that is not the point I want to make today. I want to bring to your attention an issue that is even more important, in my opinion, that has received very little attention in the media since it happened recently.
In late January, Hillary Clinton said that she would “love” to appoint Barack Obama to the Supreme Court if she is elected president. She went on to say:
“I mean he’s brilliant, and he can set forth an argument, and he was a law professor, so he’s got all the credentials… but we would have to get a Democratic Senate to get him confirmed.”
These kinds of highly-charged comments don’t happen by accident, especially from a political veteran like Hillary. This was a calculated comment that had to be discussed privately with Mr. Obama in advance.
Obviously, Ms. Clinton is well aware that Obama is at least intrigued by a Supreme Court justiceship. A 2014 New Yorker article said that Obama appeared “tempted” by an appointment to the Supreme Court. He said in the article:
“I love the law, intellectually. I love nutting out these problems, wrestling with these arguments.”
While I have no doubt that President Obama might be intrigued with a lifetime Supreme Court appointment, especially at his age, I really doubt that this is his intention. A Supreme Court Justice makes about $214,000 year. Weigh that against the millions a year he can make on the speaking circuit as an ex-president.
While President Obama is a liberal ideologue who might consider a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, he is not without monetary considerations, I assure you. Money is everything in Washington, despite media suggestions to the contrary. Hopefully, he will not be a candidate for the Supreme Court, and hopefully Hillary will not be our next president!
Supremes Overturned Obama More Than Any President
Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, it is important to know that President Obama has had more of his executive actions overturned by the Supreme Court than any other president.
According to the Justice Department, the government has a historical win rate with the High Court of almost 70%. Yet according to the same agency, President Obama has been overturned or blocked on almost two-thirds of his executive actions during his time in office – the most of any president – and he still has almost a year to go.
And it gets even worse. According to the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Obama has been unanimously overturned (9-0) at least 12 times since he took office – a clear rebuke of his repeated presidential overreach.
The most recent loss for the president came on February 9 when the Supreme Court dealt a blow to President Obama’s signature climate change initiative by halting the administration’s effort to reduce pollution from coal-fired power plants while a legal battle rages on.
The move by the court’s five conservative members was a shock to environmentalists, who had hoped the justices would deny – as a federal appeals court did in January – a petition filed by 29 mostly Republican-led states and industry leaders.
Prior to the February 9 action, the High Court blocked Obama’s plan to cancel the deportation of more than four million illegal immigrants.
The fact that Mr. Obama has been overturned or blocked by the Supremes more than any other president confirms that he is the most activist president in modern times, maybe ever!
And Hillary wants to put him on the Supreme Court for life?
