Obama Suffers 12th Unanimous Defeat in SCOTUS

If Obama’s Department of Justice had been successful in these cases, the federal government would now have the power to:

• Attach a GPS to a citizen’s vehicle to monitor his movements, without having any cause to believe that person committed a crime (United States v. Jones).
• Deprive landowners of the right to challenge potential government fines as high as $75,000 per day and eliminate their ability to have a hearing to challenge those fines (Sackett v. EPA).
• Interfere with a church’s selection of its own ministers (Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC).
• Override state law whenever the President desires (Arizona v. United States).
• Dramatically extend statutes of limitations to impose penalties for acts committed decades ago (Gabelli v. SEC).
• Destroy private property without paying just compensation (Arkansas Fish & Game Commission vs. United States).
• Impose double income taxation (PPL Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue).
• Limit a property owner’s constitutional defenses (Horne v. USDA).
• Drastically expand federal criminal law (Sekhar v. United States).
• Charge petty crimes as terrorism under federal law (Bond v. United States).
• Discover regulatory powers beyond the intention of statutes passed by Congress (Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA).
• Ignore the Senate’s right to oversee all presidential appointments (NLRB v. Canning).

To give you a flavor for the aggressive overreach these cases represent:

• Bond v. United States: Bond had smeared a couple of toxic chemicals on surfaces her husband’s mistress was likely to touch and gave the woman a mild rash. The feds actually charged her with possession and use of a chemical weapon! SCOTUS ruled unanimously that this was unconstitutional.
• Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA: The EPA decided to regulate carbon dioxide to such a degree that it would essentially bring construction to a halt nationwide. SCOTUS condemned the EPA’s attempt to go far beyond the bounds of what the legislation passed by Congress ever intended or allowed.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) says these twelve defeats represent only “the tip of the iceberg” because more cases concerning presidential overreach are still working their way up to the Supreme Court.

Sources:

The Legal Limit: The Obama Administration’s Attempts to Expand Federal Power
By U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on The Constitution, civil Rights and Human Rights http://www.cruz.senate.gov/files/documents/The%20Legal%20Limit/The%20Legal%20Limit%20Report%201.pdf

Court rules against Obama – June 2, 2014
http://conservativetribune.com/court-rules-against-obama/

Obama EPA Suffers Humiliating Defeat at SCOTUS – June 24, 2014
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/06/24/Obama-EPA-Suffers-Humiliating-Defeat-at-SCOTUS-Media-Gets-It-Wrong

Obama Suffers 12th Unanimous Defeat at Supreme Court By Joel Gehrke – June 26, 2014
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/381302/obama-suffers-12th-unanimous-defeat-supreme-court-joel-gehrke