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Kavanaugh: Presidents can ignore laws

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 7:24 pm
by Bob78164
Judge Kavanaugh has expressed the opinion that a President can ignore a law (even one that he signed) if he believes it to be unconstitutional. According to Judge Kavanaugh, the President is entitled to do that until a final court order tell him that he's wrong.

So on the one hand, Kavanaugh thinks that a President can ignore the law until a court tells him he can't. On the other hand, the courts are more and more frequently concluding that disputes about laws (particularly involving separation of powers) are "political questions" that the courts cannot address. Put the two together, and you have Kavanaugh signing off on an imperial Presidency far beyond what we've ever seen before.

The correct rule is that the President must follow the law until and unless he gets a court to agree with him that the law is unconstitutional (or invalid for some other reason). Anything else drives a stake through the heart of Congress's role.

By the way, some of this stuff comes from Kavanaugh's time as Bush's staff secretary. That's the stuff Democrats have been demanding and Republicans don't want to wait for. Apparently they think it would be unfair to judge Kavanaugh on his entire record or to take enough time to be sure that his entire record is available for public scrutiny. Needless to say, any claim by Republicans that any delay in processing Judge Kavanaugh's nomination would be unfair (and I've already seen that claim made) should be met with a two-word answer: "Merrick Garland." --Bob

Re: Kavanaugh: Presidents can ignore laws

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 9:42 pm
by flockofseagulls104
Judge Kavanaugh has expressed the opinion that a President can ignore a law (even one that he signed) if he believes it to be unconstitutional.
Gee, where was your outrage when Obama was using his phone and pen?

Re: Kavanaugh: Presidents can ignore laws

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 9:53 pm
by Bob78164
flockofseagulls104 wrote:
Judge Kavanaugh has expressed the opinion that a President can ignore a law (even one that he signed) if he believes it to be unconstitutional.
Gee, where was your outrage when Obama was using his phone and pen?
President Obama didn't refuse to abide by laws on the grounds that they were unconstitutional. The Justice Department refused to defend prohibitions on same-sex marriage (just as the current Justice Department is refusing to defend the Affordable Care Act against a legal attack that is utterly frivolous) and President Obama construed laws in ways the courts later disagreed with, but that's very different from what Judge Kavanaugh would permit: a President who agrees that a law requires (or forbids) some action, but refuses to follow that command because he thinks it's unconstitutional.

It would be as though Congress passed a law requiring certain sanctions against Russia with a veto-proof majority, the law were enacted, but then the White House refused to impose the sanctions required by that law. According to Kavanaugh, that's perfectly okay until and unless someone can get all the way to a final court order saying that the law is valid. --Bob

Re: Kavanaugh: Presidents can ignore laws

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 10:13 pm
by jarnon
If a law is plainly constitutional, it doesn't take long to find a judge who will order the government to obey it until the case is finally decided. OTOH, some laws really are unconstitutional. Congress ordered the State Dept. to put "Israel" on the passports of Americans born in the Israeli part of Jerusalem. The State Dept. said no, and lower courts and eventually the Supreme Court agreed.

Did Kavanaugh have this opinion as a judge, or as a lawyer for the Bush White House, when he may have been arguing for his client whether he personally agreed or not?

Re: Kavanaugh: Presidents can ignore laws

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 10:18 pm
by Bob78164
jarnon wrote:If a law is plainly constitutional, it doesn't take long to find a judge who will order the government to obey it until the case is finally decided. OTOH, some laws really are unconstitutional. Congress ordered the State Dept. to put "Israel" on the passports of Americans born in the Israeli part of Jerusalem. The State Dept. said no, and lower courts and eventually the Supreme Court agreed.

Did Kavanaugh have this opinion as a judge, or as a lawyer for the Bush White House, when he may have been arguing for his client whether he personally agreed or not?
Two opinions while sitting on the D.C. Circuit. --Bob

Re: Kavanaugh: Presidents can ignore laws

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 7:56 am
by BackInTex
Bob78164 wrote:President Obama didn't refuse to abide by laws on the grounds that they were unconstitutional.
So what you're saying is "President Obama refused to abide by laws regardless of their constitutionality".

I agree with you.

Re: Kavanaugh: Presidents can ignore laws

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 8:10 am
by flockofseagulls104
Wow, this 'Kavanaugh thinks presidents can ignore law' is all over the place in the MSM. And in pretty much exactly the same words. Must be a DEFCON-1 alert.

I guess that's gonna be the Borking point. Not a real sexy one though. I don't think it's gonna work.