‘The administration will be guided by its own constitutional interpretations’

Bob Unruh
WND News Center

A letter from a coalition of professors is telling Joe Biden to adopt a key message used during the Civil War.

A message that was used by the segregationists.

Renowned constitutional expert Jonathan Turley cited the extreme ideology in a column.

He cited two comments: “I shall resist any illegal federal court order” and when “the court’s interpretation of the Constitution is egregiously wrong,” the president should refuse to follow it.

“Those two statements were made roughly 60 years apart. The first is from segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace (D). The second was made by two liberal professors this month. In one of the most chilling developments in our history, the left has come to embrace the authoritarian language and logic of segregationists in calling for defiance and radical measures against the Supreme Court,” Turley explained.

“In a recent open letter, Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet and San Francisco State University political scientist Aaron Belkin called upon President Joe Biden to defy rulings of the Supreme Court that he considers ‘mistaken’ in the name of ‘popular constitutionalism.’ Thus, in light of the court’s bar on the use of race in college admissions, they argue that Biden should just continue to follow his own constitutional interpretation,” he warned.

Fox News described the letter as urging Biden “to defy the rulings” of the Supreme Court.

The professors’ “Open Letter to the Biden Administration on Popular Constitutionalism” came after Biden openly denounced the judiciary as being “not a normal court.”

“We urge President Biden to restrain MAGA justices immediately by announcing that if and when they issue rulings that are based on gravely mistaken interpretations of the Constitution that undermine our most fundamental commitments, the administration will be guided by its own constitutional interpretations,” they wrote.

The professors apparently were upset over rulings in the last year or so that gave authority to the states to regulate abortion, affirmed free speech, affirmed religious rights, ended race-based admissions to colleges and more – all ideologies on which leftists and progressives demand their way in America.

“We have worked diligently over the past five years to advocate Supreme Court expansion as a necessary strategy for restoring democracy. Although we continue to support expansion, the threat that MAGA justices pose is so extreme that reforms that do not require congressional approval are needed at this time, and advocates and experts should encourage President Biden to take immediate action to limit the damage,” the letter said.

They are infuriated and outraged that there now is, mostly, a 6-3 conservative majority on the court, after decades of liberal ideology prevailing there.

The letter said simply that courts “do not exercise exclusive authority over constitutional meaning,” and they suggest Biden can simply explain how he thinks the decisions are wrong and ignore them.

The letter claims, “In this particular historical moment, MAGA justices pose a grave threat to our most fundamental commitments because they rule consistently to undermine democracy and to curtail fundamental rights, and because many of their rulings are based on misleading and untrue claims.”

Turley wrote, “What is most striking about these professors is how they continue to claim they are defenders of democracy, yet seek to use unilateral executive authority to defy the courts and, in cases like the tuition forgiveness and affirmative action, the majority of the public. They remain the privileged elite of academia, declaring their values as transcending both constitutional and democratic processes.”

He added, “In other words, they are calling for Biden to declare himself the final arbiter of what the Constitution means and to exercise unilateral executive power without congressional approval. He is to become a government unto himself.”

Tushnet and Belkin both have a history of leftist activism, trying to disrupt the legitimate nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the high court.

One of their projects now wants to add leftist judges to the court in numbers enough to make sure they get their way with decisions.

Turley pointed out, “So despite referenda and polls showing majority support for barring race in admissions, academics are pushing to impose their own values, regardless of the views of the public or of the courts.”

He pointed out that Sen. James Eastland, D-Miss., argued back in the day that “all the people of the South are in favor of segregation. And Supreme Court or no Supreme Court, we are going to maintain segregated schools.”

He noted that Biden, during his tenure, has taken a number of actions that simply are unconstitutional.

He added, “While presidents such as Andrew Jackson taunted the court for its inability to enforce its rulings without an army, it has never needed one. Respect for the court is in our DNA. No matter our disagreements with a given decision, Americans will not tolerate defiance of the institution and the rule of law.”

He pointed out how the professors simply claim to be “defenders of democracy,” but they demand “to use unilateral executive authority to defy the courts and, in cases like the tuition forgiveness and affirmative action, the majority of the public.”