Newt’s Odd Understanding of the US Constitution
Newt Gingrich claims to be a historian but his understanding of US history and the US Constitution leave much to be desired. His latest musings about judicial review and whether a President has the right to simply ignore a Supreme Court ruling are quite disturbing.
Frankly, Gingrich claims that he wouldn’t be compelled to follow the Supreme Court’s rulings on constitutional law questions. But, when asked whether President Obama could ignore a potential Court ruling the health care reform law as unconstitutional, he declined to say that Obama had that right - saying only that the president can ignore the Court’s rulings only in extraordinary situations.
But if we apply Gingrich’s own supposed standard for presidential review to the health care question, President Obama could simply declare the issue to be extraordinary and ignore the court’s ruling. The howls that would come from the GOP and the conservative base that Gingrich is courting in the 2012 election season would never be louder than if the President simply ignored a court ruling the health care law was unconstitutional because the President simply thought that the health care law was an extraordinary situation. Gingrich would probably be the first to claim that President Obama should be impeached for ignoring the Court.
It’s complete malarkey. What this is about is that Gingrich wants to override decisions he doesn’t like from the bench, all while ignoring 200+ years of judicial review by the courts on the constitutionality of the issues at hand.
Throw in his musings about same sex marriage, and you’ve got yet another GOP candidate who would throw judicial review under the bus.
Frank says: