The GOP's best friend, Justice Antonin Scalia.
The GOP's best friend, Justice Antonin Scalia.
Republicans learned a key lesson in the 2000 election: they can always thwart the will of the voting public by going to court. So what if President Obama has won two decisive elections? They can always resort to some of that
judicial activism they complain so bitterly about when the decisions are about women's rights or marriage equality.
On health care, Republicans in Washington have sued the president and joined state lawsuits urging the Supreme Court to declare major parts of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. On climate change, state attorneys general and coal industry groups are urging federal courts to block the president’s plan to regulate power plants. And on immigration, conservative lawmakers and state officials have demanded that federal judges overturn Mr. Obama’s plan to prevent millions of deportations.
Democrats say the legal moves reflect a convenient turnabout for the Republican Party and a newfound willingness to seek an active role for the judiciary when it benefits conservative policy goals.
"What they cannot win in the legislative body, they now seek and hope to achieve through judicial activism," said Representative Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia. "That is such delicious irony, it makes one's head spin."
Connolly is overstating that a bit. It would only make your head spin if Republicans hadn't such a long track record of hypocrisy. This is perfectly par for the course for them, and unfortunately, we've got a U.S. Supreme Court that only encourages them to take this route. Just the court's
remarkable decision to take on the legally dubious Obamacare challenge—before the lower courts all decided—is all the encouragement Republicans need to turn to some judicial activism.
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