×

The Supreme Court ruled wisely

President Barack Obama is accustomed to getting his way, even when that means trampling the Constitution. So it was no wonder his press conference in response to a Supreme Court decision June 23 dripped with bitterness.

Obama’s executive order that, in effect, granted amnesty from immigration laws to millions of people in this county illegally, was before the high court. Justices deadlocked on it in a 4-4 vote.

That left a lower court ruling, that Obama’s action was unconstitutional, stand.

Obama declared the ruling “takes us further from the country we aspire to be.”

No. The ruling may move the nation away from what Obama wants it to be – but that is not how our government was designed to work.

Lawmaking power in the United States is reserved to Congress. Surely Obama’s order, exempting millions of illegal immigrants from laws passed by Congress and signed into law by previous presidents, amounts to making his own law.

Obama knows all this. But for most of his two terms in office, he has gotten away with making his own laws. Only within the past couple of years have Americans, often led by state officials, challenged his imperial presidency in court.

Often, as has been the case with some of his unconstitutional use of the Environmental Protection Agency, the courts have ruled against Obama.

Before the next president takes office – especially if it is Hillary Clinton, who has vowed to make even more use of executive orders – our government needs to be taken back. Obama has gone too far, and the Supreme Court ruling to which the president objected was merely restoring some of the checks and balances system that served our country well for two centuries.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today