This reluctance to unapologetically apply judicial review when authority clauses — rather than liberty clauses — are implicated bodes ill for many current court challenges. There might not be five votes to succeed in challenges to Dodd-Frank, EPA’s cap-and-trade rules, the FCC’s Internet-control rules, the recess-appointment challenges, and other power grabs.
Mr. Obama announced on July 6 in Ohio that this election is about a “clash of visions” about the role of government in our lives, arguing for massive entitlements and regulatory controls. If he wins, he will claim a mandate and take federal power to heights we’ve never seen. We can no longer be confident that the Supreme Court will stop him.
Liberty endures only when each branch fully and fearlessly checks and balances the other two branches. Abdicating judicial review empowers President Obama to subvert the Constitution with an imperial presidency, and fundamentally transform the United States to the detriment of future generations.
National-bestselling authors Ambassador Ken Blackwell and Breitbart News legal columnist Ken Klukowski are on faculty at Liberty University and discuss the constitutional role of the courts in Resurgent: How Constitutional Conservatism Can Save America.
