Earlier this week the most corrupt federal appeals court on the planet also known as the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals angrily threw a gauntlet, also known as a hissy fit, at the feet of the Obama administration.
Their demands?
Judge Jerry Smith, a Republican appointee on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, was part of a three-judge panel hearing arguments in a lawsuit over the Affordable Care Act when he issued his unusual demand, saying the Justice Department must submit the three-page, single-spaced letter by noon Thursday, according to a lawyer who was in the courtroom. The demand was first reported by CBS News.
The Department of Justice, ever deferential to court orders, delivered the requested three-page, single spaced letter in a timely fashion. As much as I'd love to report to you that it said "I <3 Obamacare." over and over again to fill up the space, the DOJ treated the order with far more deference than it deserved.
Here is part of their response:
2. In considering such challenges, Acts of Congress are “presumptively constitutional,” Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC, 507 U.S. 1301, 1301 (1993), and the Supreme Court stressed that the presumption of constitutionality accorded to Acts of Congress is “strong.” United States v. Five Gambling Devices Labeled in Part .. Mills,” and Bearing Serial Nos. 593-221,346 U.S. 441 , 449 (1953); see, e.g., Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1, 28 (2005) (noting that the “congressional judgment” at issue was “entitled to a strong presumption of validity”). The Supreme Court has explained: “This is not a mere polite gesture. It is a deference due to deliberate judgment by constitutional majorities of the two Houses of Congress that an Act is within their delegated power or is necessary and proper to execution of that power.”
I had to laugh at some of the citations Holder used in the letter. There was a reference to Ayotte vs. Planned Parenthood and Thomas More Law Center vs. Obama. Nothing like shoving conservatives in conservatives' faces.
This whole exercise was ridiculous. The order to write a response in three single-spaced pages smacks of an elementary school punishment. Of course, these are the same judges that lifted the Obama administration's embargo on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill without any regard to what such a decision would do to the already damaged Gulf.
Of course, conservatives are in high dudgeon these days. Mitch McConnell's imperious order to the elected President of the United States to "back off" is but one example of their arrogance and presumptuous disrespect. These guys seem to be genuinely bent out of shape that the black President isn't bowing and scraping to them.
I look forward to the day when they're all irrelevant.