Last month we saw a bizarre idea pushed by Dalia Lithwick of Slate and Ben Adler of Newsweek saying not only that the Congress need not refrain from passing unconstitutional bills, but that to refrain from passing unconstitutional bills would actually be “weird” and “dangerous”. Both believed (or claimed to) that the Supreme Court should be the sole arbiter of constitutionality and it was improper for the other branches even to consider it. (Lithwick even suggested that the principle was written in the constitution, which of course it is not.)
Now we see President Obama expounding the same principle:
Q: And one of the things I’d like to ask you — and I think it’s a simple yes or no question too — is do you think that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is unconstitutional?
THE PRESIDENT: It’s not a simple yes or no question, because I’m not sitting on the Supreme Court. And I’ve got to be careful, as President of the United States, to make sure that when I’m making pronouncements about laws that Congress passed I don’t do so just off the top of my head.
So only the Supreme Court can have a firm opinion about whether DADT is constitutional? Slate and Newsweek don’t matter, except as a window into the mentality of the liberal elite, but when you see President Obama expounding the same idea, it’s liable to become the received wisdom of the left.
POSTSCRIPT: He also implies that he has never considered the question (i.e., an answer would be off the top of his head). I assume that’s a lie, because the alternative is worse: the President of the United States (and a former professor of constitutional law) has never given any thought to DADT, despite it being a controversial policy of his administration, and one that his administration is defending in court.
Internet Scofflaw 