The President is Caught Again

The President is Caught Again

May 20, 2016

I wrote in my last email to you about the misuse of Presidential power (you can go here to read that email).  Well, the Supreme court has caught the President again and has done what it could to stop him.

At issue is whether a provision in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that allows religious nonprofits and closely-held for-profit organizations to opt out from covering contraception, while insurers make sure that employees can still obtain the coverage, infringes on the employers’ religious beliefs. The case combines several lawsuits, including one sought by the Little Sisters of the Poor.

In short what the President tried to do in Obamacare was infringe on our religious freedom and/or discriminate against certain small businesses by forcing them to cover contraception.  Just another example of the misuse of Presidential power and the cowardice of the legislative branch in voting this law into existence.  Remember, President Obama held majorities in both the Senate and the House and they cowed to his will rather than protecting our rights.  While it seems that this time the judicial branch stood up and at least left open the avenue for our rights to be protected we need to remember that the Constitution clearly states that all the officials of all branches of the government have the responsibility to support the Constitution. I think the authors and original signers of the Constitution didn’t define “support” as meaning you can take whatever liberties you want until you get caught, which seems to be the way we’re doing business these days.  My fear is that the legislative and judicial branches may continue to lose their will, i.e. not have the guts, to stop the misuse of power by the executive branch.  This latest episode proves my point.

It is my opinion (shared by many people far more respectable than me) that the members of the Supreme Court knew that if they ruled and voted on the issue concerning contraceptives it would result in a four to four tie.  This would have meant that the lower court’s ruling, that this attack on our religious freedom was permissible, would have been upheld and the matter would be over. Thankfully the Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower court to see if some compromise could be worked out.  I applaud the Supreme Court Justices for taking this approach rather than letting the ruling stand with no further recourse available.  Again, it is my opinion that if Justice Scalia was still alive the vote would have been five to four against and the ruling would have been overturned, our religious freedoms protected and this misuse of Presidential power would have been thwarted.  It brings me to my final point.

The Supreme Court Justices are getting old, there is one vacancy already.  It looks like the next President will nominate at least one Supreme Court Justice, possibly more, and the Senate will vote on whether to approve each nomination.  The next President and members of the Senate will have a huge impact on our country.

At a senior expo I attended this week we asked people to complete a simple survey asking who they would vote for; Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton or another person.  We haven’t tallied the results yet but it is safe to say that more people declined to take the survey than took it.  This has never happened before prior to a Presidential election.  A couple of popular reasons for not taking the survey were; I haven’t decided and I’m hoping someone else will come forward.  Unfortunately, the most prominent reason for not taking the survey was . . . I hate both candidates and I’m not going to vote at all.  I have never seen this attitude before and it’s scary.  We’re not just voting for a President this time we’re voting for what type of Supreme Court Justices will be nominated.  We’re not just voting for Senators we’re voting for which Justice nominations will be approved.  We can’t let our disgust with the Presidential race keep us from electing the Senators and Representatives that support our stance on issues that will have long lasting effect on our country.

As I have said before; get involved, stay educated, and above all vote!

Sincerely,

Thair Phillips – President