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FIRST AMERICAN EDITION
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Bernstein, David E., author.
Lawless: the Obama administration’s unprecedented assault on the Constitution and the rule of law / David E. Bernstein.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59403-834-1 (ebook)
1. Constitutional history—United States—21st century. 2. Rule of law—United States. 3. Executive power—United States. 4. United States—Politics and government—2009– 5. Obama, Barack. I. Title.
KF4541.B447 2015
342.7302'9—dc23
2015017132
PRODUCED BY WILSTED & TAYLOR PUBLISHING SERVICES
Copy editor Jennifer Brown
Design and composition Nancy Koerner
Indexer Derek Gottlieb
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
Senator Ted Cruz
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1
WHY SO LAWLESS?
Chapter 2
NO JUSTICE AT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Chapter 3
A LEAVE OF ABSENCE FROM THE “REPUBLIC OF CONSCIENCE”
Chapter 4
THE ASSAULT ON PRIVATE PROPERTY AND FREEDOM OF CONTRACT
Chapter 5
“MORE CZARS THAN THE ROMANOVS”
Chapter 6
OBAMACARE ABOVE ALL
Chapter 7
YOU CAN’T SAY THAT!
Chapter 8
ANTIDISCRIMINATION LAW RUN AMOK
CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
INDEX
Senator Ted Cruz
When Barack Obama first ran for president, many of his supporters, including much of the media, portrayed him as a near-messianic figure who had the potential to heal old wounds, purify our politics, and bring together a divided nation. Columnist Ezra Klein, for example, wrote (in a not-so-subtle Christological allusion) that Obama was “not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color, over despair.”1 San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford agreed with his “spiritually advanced” friends who “identif[ied] Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being . . . who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet.” Obama, Morford wrote, was like a “philosopher[ ] and peacemaker[ ] of a very high order,” a person who speaks “not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.”2 Not to be outdone, Obama’s wife, Michelle, told campaign audiences that her husband was the one candidate who understood that “before we can work on the [nation’s] problems, we have to fix our souls.” “I am married to the only person in this race,” said Michelle Obama, “who has a chance of healing this nation.”3 To top things off, Time magazine’s post-election cover story about the new president began this way: “Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope.”4
Rather than temper the absurdly high expectations others were setting for him, Obama often doubled down by promising to usher in a higher form of politics—a statesmanship that would transcend our petty ideological divisions and cynical partisanship. While announcing his candidacy, for instance, Obama explained that he was not in the race “just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation” and to “usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth.”5 Along these same lines, he promised to “not allow us to be distracted by the same politics that seeks to divide us with false charges and meaningless labels.”6 He not only vowed “to fundamentally change how Washington works,”7 but he also declared that he would “fundamentally transform[ ]” the entire United States.8 When he won the Democratic nomination, he grandiosely declared that “generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that . . . this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”9 And in his first inaugural address, Obama proclaimed “an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.”10
Looking back on these extravagant claims, one cannot escape the sense that a fraud has been perpetrated on the American people. President Obama has transformed America—but not in the way he advertised. With the enactment of “Obamacare,” he transformed the nation’s healthcare system (for the worse). With the passage of Dodd-Frank, he transformed the nation’s financial regulatory regime (for the worse). And by appeasing Cuba and Iran—the latter openly calling for “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”—he transformed the nation’s foreign policy (for the worse). But in the midst of these transformations, it became abundantly clear that Obama never had any intention of transcending ideology, bridging the partisan divide, and elevating our discourse. In many ways, he has made our politics even more corrosive. Instead of “fundamentally chang[ing] how Washington works,” the president has been all too willing to engage in outright deceit, rank partisanship, cronyism, and procedural gimmickry to enact his agenda.
Obamacare is the perfect example. There’s no question that Obamacare was built on outright deceit. As the bill worked its way through the legislative process, the president traveled the country trying to sell it to the American people. Most infamously, he promised over and over again, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.”11 This claim, necessary to curry what little public support the bill was able to achieve, was a blatant falsehood. As for bipartisanship, the president could not garner a single Republican vote for his sweeping and constitutionally flawed healthcare proposal. But instead of enacting a more modest reform that could earn bipartisan support, he pressed forward, taunting Republicans