Most of you have heard how Republican Fifth Circuit Judge Jerry Smith ordered the Justice Department to submit a three page, single-spaced letter responding to President Obama’s recent comnets regarding the constitutionality of the ACA. He ordered DOJ to write a 3 page brief on judical review.
Well, yesterday Rush Limbaugh welcomed the Judge to the team to defeat President Barack Obama.
Now, yesterday afternoon a federal judge by the name of Jerry Smith at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Houston had had enough, and he demanded that the Justice Department give him a three-page memo on whether or not this administration understands the concept of judicial review. Now, I saw this and I started cheering. I started laughing. Because it’s about time people started fighting back on this. The American people love the concept of a team. You have to have the right people on the team, but we are a team here. There is a team that’s opposing this president, and attempting to make him a one-termer this November at the ballot box. It’s great to have this response.
Think Progress, quoting Rush Limbaugh, de facto head of Republican Party
It just amazes me that a federal appellate court Judge would act in this way.
Glad Attorney General Holder responded as he did.
From David Nir's front page post:
Well, earlier today, the panel—really, Republican appointee Jerry Smith—got the letter it wanted (PDF). And speaking as a lawyer, it's a painfully embarrassing read. As I expected, it's simply a recitation of the most basic tenets of constitutional law that get taught in the first year of law school. It's like explaining band-aids to doctors. Smith, a notorious partisan hack, pretty much asked the Department of Justice to scrawl "Marbury v. Madison" 50 times on the blackboard, and that's exactly what they did.
But the last word will go to Attorney General Eric Holder, who did the menschy thing and signed the letter himself, rather than making the DoJ line attorney who was the target of Smith's ire take any more incoming fire. Holder's final paragraph reads, in its entirety:
The President's remarks were fully consistent with the principles herein
.
Eric Holder sends judge in health care cases exactly the letter he asked for+*