Liberal politicians who never gave the Constitution a second thought are all of a sudden holding press conferences about the Emoluments Clause and celebrating the importance of Judicial Supremacy. This seems quite out of place, especially considering the Democratic Party's dedication to ends-justify-the-means public policy.
We all know that the Democrats can’t keep up this charade for long. One can't suddenly become a constitutionalist after decades of arguing that the founding documents are “living and breathing.”
But what about Bernie Sanders? For the past two years, we have been bombarded with claims that Bernie Sanders is the most principled liberal politician in Washington.
In some ways, this is true. He has stood for many of the same things for decades. For example, Sanders stood in Congress and delivered a speech against the Iraq War even though there wasn’t anyone else there to hear him. Many of the policies Sanders supports today are the same ones he advocated when he first came to Congress in 1991.
But is he principled when it comes to the Constitution? Does he really believe in Judicial Supremacy or only when it suits his own agenda?
When District Judge James Robart decided to block President Trump’s travel ban executive order, Democrats rejoiced. Bernie Sanders was particularly vocal on the issue:
Sanders declared that the ability of a Federal Judge
to block an Executive Order from going into effect is “how our democracy is supposed to work.”When President Trump criticized the “so-called judge” for his ruling, Bernie Sanders again lashed out against the President on social media.
Here is a man who believes in the existence of a Constitutional right to free healthcare lecturing the President on “what our Constitution is about.”
None of these tweets are all that surprising. The talking points coming out of the Democratic Party at the time stressed the idea of Judicial Supremacy and how important an independent Judiciary is to preventing Executive Branch overreach.
But how long can Bernie Sanders keep this up? How long can the self-confessed Socialist keep up the charade of being a Constitutional Liberal? Apparently, not that long...
This week, President Trump signed a number of
executive orders that repeal actions taken by his predecessor. The President signed the Energy Independence order, repealing Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and also took action to repeal Executive Order 13673, also known as Obama’s “Overtime Rule.”Neither of these Obama-era regulations were even in effect. Both the Clean Power Plan and Overtime Rule were still blocked by the Judiciary.
In early 2016, The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to stop the Obama White House from implementing its Clean Power Plan regulations to curb carbon emissions. Last November, a Federal Judge in Texas announced an injunction against the Overtime Rule just hours before it went into effect.
Both of these injunctions were justified. In both cases, the Obama-era orders were blocked because Judges and Justices determined that the plaintiffs have a reasonable chance of succeeding on the merits of their cases and that if the regulations were enacted in the meantime, they would cause the plaintiffs irreparable harm.
This is the same exact logic used to block Donald Trump’s travel ban executive order, which Bernie Sanders cheered for being “how our democracy is supposed to work.”
So how does Senator Sanders feel about Donald Trump’s decision to repeal Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan?
This is how Bernie Sanders responds to the President of the United States repealing an executive order that the Supreme Court blocked from going into effect.
It is truly amazing how in the span of just a 52 days, the Senator from Vermont transformed from a Constitutional Liberal praising the separation of powers and Judicial Supremacy to just another Leftist politician angry about a result he doesn’t like.
Bernie Sanders has yet to comment on President Trump’s decision to repeal Executive Order 13673. The Senator released a statement when the order was originally blocked by a Federal Judge in November. Here is an excerpt of that statement.
Again, so much for “how our democracy is supposed to work,” huh?
So today, we say goodbye to Constitutional Liberal Bernie Sanders and welcome back Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders.
Having Bernie Sanders lecture us on Constitutional Law was fun while it lasted. But all good times must come to an end. The world must be returned to balance.
Ultimately, the charade of caring about the Constitution was just too difficult for the Senator to keep-up. Bernie Sanders lasted 52 days as a “Constitutional Liberal," which may actually be a record in the Democrat Caucus...
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