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Doug Israel's avatar

The problem is not judicial review of government actions. It is the issuance of sweeping nation wide injunctions by individual district judges. This cannot be allowed to continue. It simply cannot. Ideally Congress would step in and explicitly make it clear that trial level judges do not rule on matters beyond their jurisdiction and the case in front of them and cannot issue nationwide edicts. Since we all know Congress is paralyzed and can do nothing it is imperative that the USSC issue a clear and firm ruling that this kind of action is illegal.

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Jim Dueholm's avatar

I agree with Paul's analysis, but will take a short whack at the merits, and here I think the focus should be on a single word in the Constitution. The Constitution vests all executive power in the president, and it demands that he "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." The take care duty requires and empowers him to administer and implement the laws. The "faithfully" requirement goes beyond that, empowering the president to determine whether the laws are being executed in a way consistent with their terms and purposes. Bloated bureaucracies are not a faithful execution of the laws. Agencies, programs and expenditures that are not authorized or don't serve the laws' purposes are not faithful execution of the laws. Excessive or improper expenditures are not faithful execution of the laws. A trial court's meddling on a nationwide basis with presidential exercise of his constitutional duties and powers is not a faithful execution of the laws. The list goes on. Ultimately, of course, the Supreme Court will determine the extent of presidential power, but "faithfully" gives the president the first crack, and a large crack, at many of the matters that will soon crowd the Court's docket. Jim Dueholm

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