Insult and obfuscation appear to be acceptable

After the Supreme Court’s 1832 Worcester v Georgia decision regarding Native American rights, President Andrew Jackson was quoted as saying, “John Marshall made his decision, now let him enforce it.”  The quote is probably not accurate, but Jackson clearly intended on ignoring the court’s decision to treat Native American tribes as independent nations.  As we all know, the deprivation of the rights of Native Americans continued, and the disrespect that Jackson showed the Court damaged the power of the supposedly equal Judicial Branch of our government.

The Biden administration may be worse.  There are no Cherokee people dying on the Trail of Tears, but the blatant disrespect shown to the other two branches of government is astounding.  It seems like the pugnaciousness in politics is damaging the foundations of the Constitution.  Joe Biden is to blame.

Recently Biden called the current court, “not a normal court” after their decision to strike down affirmative action.  He has decried several of their recent decisions quite publicly and all indications are that he plans workarounds to ignore them. 

After the Students for Fair Admissions decision, Biden publicly decried the opinion, stating “we cannot let this decision be the last word.”  He openly called on private institutions to end run the decision by creating wink-and-a-nod economic and adversity criteria to create a de facto affirmative action program.  Although this is potentially allowed by the Court’s decision, the public statements by the President minimize the court’s validity. 

After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Biden stated that the decision was, “a realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error by the Supreme Court”.  This is despite the fact that many legal experts have commented that the Roe case was poorly decided.

Shortly after the June 30 decision in Biden v Nebraska, which made his $400 billion student loan “forgiveness” plan illegal, the executive branch attacked the Supreme Court.  Biden stated that the decision “was wrong” and that he would “stop at nothing” to provide relief to students.  Education Secretary Cardona recently said that the Supreme Court took us backwards in a really wrong decision.  He vowed to continue eliminating student debt using any means possible.  Essentially discrediting and disregarding the Supreme Court in order to gain votes for the President.

Biden immediately went ahead with a new plan that would forgive $116 billion in student loan debt.  This action, done without the approval of the legislature, is a slap in the face to the Supreme Court (and Congress).

Even the Department of Justice seemed to get in on the act of snubbing the Judiciary, submitting a plea deal for Hunter Biden in federal court which Judge Noreika described as “unusual and potentially “unconstitutional”.  Federal prosecutors had to admit in open court that the deal was unprecedented.  Judge Noreika stated that the agreement tied her hands and required that the judicial branch conduct and enforcement action if Hunter violated the terms.  She advised that this is not the job of the judicial branch of government.  It seems by all accounts that the DOJ tried to pull the wool over the judge’s eyes.  Fortunately, she seems too smart to fall for their shady deal. 

Biden’s Executive Branch does not limit its disrespect to the Judicial Branch.  It was recently disclosed that the FBI sent a letter to one of its retired agents, requesting that they not answer questions from the House Oversight Committee.  The request went beyond reminding the retired agent about releasing top secret or classified information, it wanted no “non-public” information disclosed.

This is on the heels of FBI Director Wray obfuscating for hours in front of the House Judiciary Committee this month.  His testimony was a high-level lesson in doublespeak and dodge.  The exchange made a joke of the checks and balances system and was an insult to the House of Representatives, also known as The People’s House. 

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas pulled a similar act testifying last week in front of the House Judiciary Committee.  He often claimed to not be aware of seeming basic facts and statistics.  He appeared to have no idea what happened to the 140 people on the terrorist watchlist that were apprehended by DHS.  Mayorkas made statements designed to split hairs and obscure the truth.  At the end of the day, the White House is simply ignoring the laws made by the legislature and then refusing to account for that course of conduct.

The Biden Administration has apparently no regard and no respect for the Constitution.  The creators of that document intended on the system of checks and balances to avoid one branch becoming too powerful.  And now their fears are realized.  The President has more power today than at any other time in our nation’s history (with the possible exception of during the Civil War).  Let’s hope that a bipartisan effort can be undertaken to ensure our government operates as it was designed to. 

Painting by Lindneux, Robert. The Trail of Tears. 1942. Oil on canvas. Bartlesville, Oklahoma: Woolaroc Museum. Accessed May 12, 2022 at https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal-six-nations/cherokee/image.