Today, the Supreme Court tossed out the work of a district court that attempted to force its own electoral maps on the state of Texas, while ignoring the maps drawn by the Texas legislature. The unanimous decision is a major victory for constitutional federalism, and a blow to runaway judicial activism. Drawing electoral districts is one of the core responsibilities of state legislatures, and a vital part of the democratic process, and the federal courts have at least paid lip service to the principle that legislator-passed electoral maps are due significant …
Defenders of President Obama’s unprecedented “recess” appointments of Richard Cordray to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three members to the National Labor Relations Board argue that the Constitution is vague on when Congress is in session and that the President can therefore take a “functionalist” approach that considers whether the Senate is available to vote on nominations. Yet even the President doesn’t buy that argument. Proof is that on December 23, President Obama signed a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut. He said that Congress passed the …
“Are you serious? Are you serious?” then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) famously replied when asked where, specifically, the Constitution granted Congress the authority to mandate that every American purchase health insurance coverage. The question was very serious, it turns out, even if Pelosi’s intent was sarcasm. Four federal courts have already struck down Obamacare in whole or in part on constitutional grounds. And now, with the Supreme Court widely expected to take the case in the coming weeks, three of the individuals who proved Pelosi wrong will address …
Last week, Bloomberg reported that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulatory push against the fossil fuel industry will cost America’s largest utility, the Southern Company, up to $18 billion in compliance costs. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. According to data in a filing by Southern last week, the EPA’s new emissions requirements cannot be met in the three years allowed by the agency. The results: more power plant closures, spikes in electricity prices, job losses, and increased power outages. Southern’s filing demonstrates that, based on company data …
Here’s a simple test for whether the President is serious about jobs and the economy: Does he rein in the Environmental Protection Agency? With the debt ceiling issue resolved for the time being, President Obama has stated his intention to “pivot” to focus on jobs and the economy. Economic growth is stagnant, and unemployment is at unacceptable levels—and that’s not even including millions of discouraged people who have dropped out of the workforce altogether. Jobs and economic growth are the right focus. But there is, understandably, some skepticism that the …
For some partisans—especially those who believe in the “living Constitution”—the Constitution sanctions all they favor and forbids all they oppose. So it is with the debate over the debt limit. All of a sudden, politicians who have never cared much for constitutional fidelity are citing a little-known section of the Fourteenth Amendment as grounds for President Obama to evade the congressionally-imposed debt ceiling. Their goal is to punt on spending reductions that would be part of any debt-ceiling deal and are essential to putting the budget in order. No surprise, …
Today the Supreme Court took up the case of American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, reviewing a Second Circuit decision finding that states and private parties could sue electricity generators for global warming under the judge-made law of nuisance. To the Second Circuit, this was just a “garden-variety” claim, despite pitting all the world (those affected by warming) against all the world (those of us who breathe) and asking a court to make some unusual judgments—for example, contriving a national energy policy that permits only the “right amount” of carbon …
