Carney: Obama Attacking Supreme Court Is "The Reverse Of Intimidation"

Posted on April 4, 2012

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/04/04/carney_obama_attacking_the_supreme_court_is_the_reverse_of_intimidation.html

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White House press secretary Jay Carney is asked why President Obama is "putting pressure" on the Supreme Court ahead of their decision on the healthcare law.

Carney says what Obama is doing is actually "the reverse of intimidation." In fact, Carney says you could argue that judges in the Circuit Courts who ruled on the law were the ones intimidating or trying to influence the Supreme Court when they issued their opinions. Transcript below.

QUESTION: The president's remarks about the healthcare case in the Supreme Court has been interpreted as challenging or putting pressure on the Court ahead of their decision. Can you speak to that and why not just allow the Court to reach a decision?

JAY CARNEY: First of all, the president was asked a question and then responded to it. Secondly, as I just said, he made an observation about why he believes that -- well, first of all, he believes the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. Why he believes it is constitutional and why he believes that the Supreme Court will, in keeping with 80+ years of judicial precedent and Supreme Court precedent, will defer to Congress on its authority to pass regulation on issues of national economic importance like our healthcare system.

It's the reverse of intimidation. He's simply making an observation about precedent and the fact that he expects the Court to adhere to that precedent. It's obviously, as he made clear yesterday, up to the Court to make its determination and we will wait and see what the Court does.

But, you know, I guess you could argue that Circuit Court judges who ruled on this were trying to intimidate or influence the Court when they issued their opinions, including very prominent conservative judges on the Court of Appeals, rather, when they issued opinions that the Affordable Care Act was constitutional and that it is entirely constitutional in keeping with 80+ years of judicial precedent.

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