MAY 15, 2014
Sen. Ted Cruz recently released a list of 76 “lawless” actions executed by President Obama – several of which highlight the work of Judicial Watch.
In the opening of his report, Cruz sets forth his hypothesis:
“Of all the troubling aspects of the Obama presidency, none is more dangerous than the President’s persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead enforce his own policies via executive fiat.”
Supporters of Judicial Watch are well aware of the evidence to support Cruz’s remarks. Using the Freedom of Information Act, Judicial Watch has been able to turn over many of the documents that make Cruz’s list so extensive including, most recently, two salient items:
- “Falsely portrayed the Benghazi terrorist attack as a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim YouTube video, and then lied about the White House’s involvement.”
- “Illegally targeted conservative groups for heightened IRS scrutiny.”
However, as witnessed by article 2 of Cruz’s “Free Speech and Privacy” section, even Judicial Watch’s work to expose corruption is not definitive under the Obama Administration. Article 2 states:
“Circumvented the Freedom of Information Act, by requiring White House Counsel review of all documents to be released under the Freedom of Information Act that the Administration believed pertained to “White House equities”—and then delayed in producing many of these documents by FOIA’s statutory deadline, or didn’t produce them at all.”
While Judicial Watch is frequently stonewalled by government agencies, article 2 gets to the heart of the problem – President Obama himself is ignoring FOIA requests filed by the public and, in doing so, sets the standard for such behavior. Obama is actively prohibiting the flow of information regarding its activities to the people whom it represents, defying the most fundamental of all laws requiring our government be held accountable to the people.
And thus is the most frightening take away from Cruz’s list. With a president who ignores the law and gets away with it, there is no law. When the executive in charge of enforcing the Constitution instead defies it, there is no standard by which the Constitution can be considered valid by officials in any government position if such a president is not held accountable.
Cruz outlines the danger in such a notion as it extends well beyond the current administration:
“…it is the Obama precedent that is opening the door for future lawlessness…an imperial presidency threatens the liberty of every citizen. Because when a president can pick and choose which laws to follow and which to ignore, he is no longer a president.”
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