Obama’s Attorney General Finding Ways To Work Around The Constitution

Eric Holder supports granting voting rights to DC citizens. Unfortunately, voting rights for DC citizens is unconstitutional. But that doesn’t matter to a resourceful guy like Holder. He’ll just find a way to work around that.
Because apparently what the Constitution actually says doesn’t really matter that much any more.

Justice Department lawyers concluded in an unpublished opinion earlier this year that the historic D.C. voting rights bill pending in Congress is unconstitutional, according to sources briefed on the issue. But Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who supports the measure, ordered up a second opinion from other lawyers in his department and determined that the legislation would pass muster.
A finding that the voting rights bill runs afoul of the Constitution could complicate an upcoming House vote and make the measure more vulnerable to a legal challenge that probably would reach the Supreme Court if it is enacted. The bill, which would give the District a vote in the House for the first time, appeared to be on the verge of passing last month before stalling when pro-gun legislators tried to attach an amendment weakening city gun laws. Supporters say it could reach the House floor in May.
In deciding that the measure is unconstitutional, lawyers in the department’s Office of Legal Counsel matched a conclusion reached by their Bush administration counterparts nearly two years ago, when a lawyer there testified that a similar bill would not withstand legal attack.
Holder rejected the advice and sought the opinion of the solicitor general’s office, where lawyers told him that they could defend the legislation if it were challenged after its enactment.

I’ll grant that sometimes our Constitution is wrong and needs to be changed. In fact, our founding fathers recognized that as well and left us with procedures we can use to change it. And we have, several times. We’ve granted voting rights. We’ve banned alcohol…and then subsequently un-banned it. So I’m ok with change. It’s just that, if we’re going to change the Constitution, we should actually change it. Not just find some work-around to get by what it actually says.
Because the process of amending the Constitution is important. It’s a long, arduous process but that’s only to ensure that the changes made reflect the will of the people.
Holder and others who think the Constitution is merely a hurdle to jump on the way to getting what they want don’t really care about the will of the people. They just care about getting what they want.

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  • http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

    Power to coin money?

  • SigFan

    I’m not sure that keeping DC residents from voting or having representation is technically the right thing to do. I’ve heard many arguments both ways and they all have their merits. I do think though that Rob is correct, if the Constitution needs to be amended then that is the proper route to solve this, not simply ignoring it and finding some made up workaround. That said though, it seems that since the 16th amendment our legislators have pretty much invalidated (or violated) a good deal of the Constitution and no one seems to really care.

  • Neiman

    Remember Biden and Lord Obama both think the Constitution is a living document that can be reinterpreted by Congress to mean something different than the actual words of that precious document. Biden and Lord Obama flat out hate the Constitution. So, Holder will get his way and neither our Senators, Representative or the people will seriously oppose them. Further, I think we are one vote away at the Supreme Court from having it, like it did with FDR, rubber stamp every Lord Obama wish!

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

    If DC was a middle to upper class white republican stronghold there is no fucking way Rob would have the same opinion.

    You did number one.

  • 2Hotel9

    Eric Holder is in that position for the purpose of negating the Constitution. It is what he has always done.

  • Bat One

    If DC was a middle to upper class white republican stronghold there is no fucking way Rob would have the same opinion.

    Wrong again, Buzz. The point of the post was to make clear that we are a nation of laws, and that what the Constitution says is pretty clear. As Rob points out, there is an established procedure for changing the Constitution… something the Left has ignored since the ERA got stifled.

  • brenarlo

    Ummmmm… how about that big thing they call The Fed? I don’t see that anywhere in the Constitution.

  • Buzz

    If DC was a middle to upper class white republican stronghold there is no fucking way Rob would have the same opinion.

  • http://suitepotato.blogspot.com/ sayanything-4808

    This is a president who thinks if a baby is born alive but the mother meant to have an abortion, the decision should be hers if she wants to terminate the living infant.

    Are we really surprised by him wanting to end-run the constitution? Obama, Holder, etc. are all callous elitist 70s style liberals. They don’t care and they quite mistakenly believe themselves within their rights to do anything that they believe they should because they believe they are smarter and better than everyone else. They utterly lack humility and a sense of place in the world. Obama’s is manager of a Jiffy Lube but he doesn’t seem to know it.

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