POLITICO, April 5, 2012 -- After accusing a federal appellate court panel of throwing a “hissy fit” about President Barack Obama, outspoken CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Thursday that the order requiring the president to explain his beliefs about judicial review was a “disgrace” and he called some Republican judges “deranged by their hatred for the president.”
“I think what these judges have done is a disgrace,” Toobin said on CNN. “What President Obama said was entirely appropriate. There is nothing wrong, there’s nothing controversial.”
“He said, ‘I signed a law that was passed by the democratically elected congress and I think it’s constitutional.’ And then these judges give the Justice Department a homework assignment, a three-page letter, single spaced, explaining what the president said,” he said.
The order from 5th Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, a Ronald Reagan-appointee, seemed to be a direct shot at Obama’s much-debated comments on Monday in which he said the Supreme Court would be guilty of an “unprecedented” act of “judicial activism” if it strikes down the health care reform law.
The DOJ letter is set to be released Thursday.
After taking criticism for his Monday comments, the president, as well as spokesman Jay Carney, explained his earlier remarks with greater historical context later in the week.
What the appellate court’s request boils down to, Toobin argued Thursday, is that some GOP judges are simply out to get Obama for partisan reasons and that the president is in no position to “threaten” the Supreme Court, as many of his critics have suggested.
“That was a perfectly appropriate comment by the president and it just shows how some of these Republican judges are just deranged by hatred of the president,” he said.
He added: “The president has no leverage over the Supreme Court. He can’t threaten. What’s he going to threaten to do? … ‘If you rule this way, I’m not going to invite you to a State dinner’?”
Toobin’s comments on the health care debate before the Supreme Court have routinely set the tone of the media’s coverage in the past few weeks, especially his characterization of the court hearings as a “train wreck” and “plane wreck” for the White House after critical questioning from some of the justices. Toobin’s remarks have also been rebuffed by top Democrats in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
Meanwhile, Toobin on Thursday also chipped away at the “meaningless line” between law and politics.
He said he had “devoted” his career to trying prove that the line between law and politics is essentially nonexistent when it comes to cases related to divisive issues such as abortion and affirmative action.
“These are essentially political decisions being made by individuals who wear black robes,” he said. “I think the more we recognize that and the more we eliminate this artificial line — this sort of idealistic but really meaningless line — between law and politics the better because that’s the way I think the world works.”
Posted By: Richard Kigel
Thursday, April 5th 2012 at 12:15PM
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