If this thing is founded upon a tax or taxes to be accurate, is it Constitutionally allowed that little barry bastard commie can unilaterally exempt groups from this legally passed tax?
Has the Oval Office stinker just given himself unenumerated powers? And what the hell can the Congress do about it?
pingaling
pingaling
I think that the power of the president to grant exemptions to the law to anyone is likely a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the XIV Amendment which reads:
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Although this clause only refers to the states, the courts have ruled that this clause does apply to the federal government as well, owing to the Fifth Amendment's due process clause which says that no one may be deprived of life liberty, or property, without due process of law.
Consequently, granting an exemption from a tax to some people, but not granting an exemption to others is a totally arbitrary act of the executive branch that deprives every citizen who is not granted a waiver a right to due process when they are deprived both of their property (i.e. money) as well as equal protection (since others were granted waivers and were thus arbitrarily protected from the tax while others were not) .
It is not permissible to allow some citizens to be taxed while others with political connections to the president are allowed to get exemptions by executive branch decree. It appears that the SCOTUS has given unlimited power to the president through the tax clause of Article I. Hopefully, this decision is overturned.
Unfortunately, Congress can't do much. They can repeal Obamacare, but SCOTUS precedent still says Congress has unlimited power so they can simply reinstate Obamacare or something worse later if it wants to. One path Congress could take would be to hold hearings to investigate SCOTUS decision. Congress could investigate Kagan for improper behavior for not recusing herself even though she was involved with Obamacare while serving in the Obama Administration. If the evidence indicates guilt she should be impeached and the Obamacare decision should be overturned since she was not qualified to vote in the decision. This would invalidate the Obamacare decision as a binding national legal precedent. The House should also investigate the other justices in the Majority for abuse of power, violation of their oaths. This would discourage SCOTUS from going rogue again.
Congress could propose amendments to the Constitution, but success in this is very unlikely which makes it a less attractive option. Another possibility is that Congress could defund enforcement of unconstitutional provisions of Obamacare or propose a law making executive use of unenumerated powers an explicitly impeachable offense. Such provisions could be tacked into Reconciliation bills or must pass Omnibus bills, making it difficult to veto them. They aren't the ideal solution, but they help to mitigate some of the damage that Roberts and his thugs inflicted on the constitution.