[StBernard] The Inconvenient Constitution

[Westley Annis]

The Inconvenient Constitution
    
Posted by Senator Mike Lee (Diary)
Tuesday, January 31st at 2:00PM EST

As a United States Senator, I have sworn an oath to support, defend, and
bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.
Complying with this Oath is not always convenient. Sometimes this requires
voting against legislation that embodies policies I agree with, other times
it requires taking a stand when doing so may not be popular.

The Constitution itself is not a document of convenience. It specifies an
onerous process - bicameralism and presentment - with which the government
must comply to enact legislation. And it imposes separation of government
powers and a system of checks and balances between the different branches.

Among those checks and balances is the requirement that the President's
nominations of federal judges and executive officers receive the Advice and
Consent of the Senate before they take office, unless they are nominated
during a Senate recess.

Events of the last few weeks show just how inconvenient the Constitution can
be for politicians who want to get their way at any cost. On January 4,
2012, President Obama attempted to bypass the Senate and unilaterally
"recess appoint" those nominees even though the Senate was not in fact in
recess.

These are brazen actions with real consequences. As a duly sworn United
States Senator I feel duty bound to resist these actions, regardless of the
difficulty.

In taking a stand against the President's unconstitutional assertion of
executive power, I have already been targeted by the President himself. In
his weekly radio address, the President singled me out, suggesting that I am
playing politics with the judicial nominations process.

The Constitution is not partisan. I will oppose any president, regardless of
party, who attempts to ignore constitutional limits on executive power. The
Senate has an important role in the appointment of federal judges and
officers. All members of Congress should be deeply concerned when the
executive encroaches on that constitutional function.

The President's justifications for his appointments are troublingly hollow.
The Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel memorandum on which he
relies passes straight over the plain text and original meaning of the
Constitution and concludes that the President may determine for himself that
the Senate's pro-forma sessions do not count as sessions for purposes of the
Constitution's Recess Appointments Clause.

It seems as if the President's response to the inconvenient Constitution is
simply to interpret away its restrictions if he doesn't like them.

I and members of Congress of both parties who care about the Constitution
must take a stand. If, as a political branch, the legislature does not
protect the Senate's constitutional right to advise and consent to nominees,
it may lose it forever. Doing so would have far-reaching implications for
Democrats as well as Republicans.

I call on all Americans - Republicans, Democrats, Independents - to stand
with me in defense of this blatant and egregious encroachment on our basic
constitutional liberties.