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Commentary: Where Does Obama Get the Authority to ‘Inform’ a Private Co. to Surrender Its Money?
CNSNews ^ | 6/15/2010 | Terence P. Jeffrey

Posted on 06/15/2010 8:59:29 PM PDT by Qbert

(CNSNews.com) - In his first-ever address from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, President Barack Obama said he was going to “inform” the chairman of BP that he must surrender the company’s money to an independent party that will distribute it to people and businesses determined to have been harmed by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The president’s declaration raises a serious constitutional question about his authority: Where does the president get the lawful power to order any private-sector company—BP or any other—that it must surrender its money? Should not courts and normal legal proceedings determine who is responsible, who has been harmed, and who owes what to whom in regards to the Gulf oil spill?   Leaving aside BP's relative popularity or lack of it today, if President Obama, on his own initiative, can tell a corporation to surrender its money because he has determined its culpability in an oil spill, under what other circumstances can Obama or any future American president tell a corporation or a private citizen to surrender money? 

What rights do the stockholders in BP have to due process of law to protect their property? The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution says: "No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

Does Obama think he can “inform” persons and corporations to surrender or exchange their property without due process of law?

(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 0dipstick; billions; bootonneck; bootonthroat; bp; chicagoway; chu; cluelessindc; corruption; dearleader; dearleaderobama; democrats; dueprocess; epicfail; impeachobama; millions; obama; obamadearleader; obamunism; oilspill; redistribution; socialism; socialists; spreadingthewealth; stevenchu; thugbama; tyranny
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To: ExTexasRedhead

Michele (one “l”, two “n”s) was magnificent on Levin today. She said that so many people she’s spoke to want the presidency to be on the ballot THIS November, and that they are just sick of it. Old news around here, but I love hearing that kind of truth on the airwaves.


61 posted on 06/15/2010 10:49:49 PM PDT by bootless (Never Forget. Never Again. (PursuingLiberty.com))
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To: All
SNIPPET from post no. 50:


"The oil spill is not the last crisis America will face."

62 posted on 06/15/2010 10:51:26 PM PDT by Cindy
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To: Hildy

I don’t know- he’d do some thuggish thing in response, for sure. Probably cancel all of their US drilling and exploration leases for starters.


63 posted on 06/15/2010 10:53:00 PM PDT by Qbert
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To: All
SNIPPET from post no. 50:

"Now, there are costs associated with this transition."

64 posted on 06/15/2010 10:53:32 PM PDT by Cindy
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To: Qbert

Personally I don’t really care what Obama does to BP. What’s the saying that BP should have learned a long time ago, “Lie down with dogs, wake up with flies.”

BP sold us out a loooooooong time ago.


65 posted on 06/15/2010 10:54:27 PM PDT by I got the rope
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To: I got the rope

LOL...flies = fleas.


66 posted on 06/15/2010 10:54:50 PM PDT by I got the rope
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To: Qbert
"When *are*people going to fight back legally? "

I think that there probably has been at least a hundred lawsuits on the Kenyan's birth certificate so far. Most have been thrown out because of "lack of standing", really cowardice on the part of the judge.

67 posted on 06/15/2010 10:59:39 PM PDT by matthew fuller (Obamacare is Michael Moore Medicine.)
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To: Qbert
When *are*people going to fight back legally?

Hard to do when they have all the lawyers.

68 posted on 06/15/2010 11:03:53 PM PDT by meyer (Big government is the enemy of freedom.)
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To: Cindy
"And that’s part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean — because we’re running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water. "

BS! To BHO, not you, Cindy!

69 posted on 06/15/2010 11:07:12 PM PDT by matthew fuller (Obamacare is Michael Moore Medicine.)
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To: Qbert

If BP surrenders ANYTHING to this thug, their leadership all needs to be hanged.

This is the United States, a free country, not Venezuela. We don’t do fascism here.


70 posted on 06/15/2010 11:09:14 PM PDT by meyer (Big government is the enemy of freedom.)
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To: Qbert

Organized theft is a core principle of leftism.


71 posted on 06/15/2010 11:14:59 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (0bummer calls opponents "Teabaggers". So we can call Kagan "Carpet Muncher." Right?)
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To: Qbert
it must be ok. he's a constitutional scholar and professor, after all. /s
72 posted on 06/15/2010 11:19:55 PM PDT by paul51 (11 September 2001 - Never forget)
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To: Cindy

It’s not that the announced members of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Commission have fully vetted liberal/envio bonifides, its that the need for a Commission shows how weak the current govt. brain trust (e.g. Salazar, Chu, Napolitano, etc) really is.

Other Freepers have described the President’s capabilities adequately. I’ll only add that the more he makes a mockery of real leadership, the more he is known and feared for what he is.


73 posted on 06/15/2010 11:53:44 PM PDT by plangent
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To: Uncle Miltie
Organized theft is a core principle of leftism

So true. That theft has never been so rampant in America.

74 posted on 06/15/2010 11:59:23 PM PDT by TheThinker (Communists: taking over the world one kooky doomsday scenerio at a time.)
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To: matthew fuller

Ditto and bump.


75 posted on 06/16/2010 12:05:50 AM PDT by Cindy
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To: ExTexasRedhead

The present day Pattons- I like it! Need more of ‘em.

“...We are advancing constantly and we’re not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We’re going to hold onto him by the nose and we’re going to kick him in the ass. We’re going to kick the hell out of him all the time and we’re going to go through him like crap through a goose...”


76 posted on 06/16/2010 12:12:36 AM PDT by Qbert
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To: Qbert

he has no LEGAL authority


77 posted on 06/16/2010 12:38:00 AM PDT by screaming eagle2 (bama)
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To: Qbert

Obummer is creating 20 Billion slush fund for Acorn to spend on political items in the Gulf region. Anything to win for Obummer and the rat party


78 posted on 06/16/2010 1:44:24 AM PDT by ncfool (The new USSA - United Socialst States of AmeriKa. Welcome to Obummers world.)
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To: Qbert

If they don’t give up their money it is not because Obama doesn’t have the authority to command it ...

it is because they are evil money grubbing capitalist racists who kept Bush in office.

(had to toss in the bush fault thing just to cover all the bases)


79 posted on 06/16/2010 2:17:28 AM PDT by Munz (All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.)
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To: matthew fuller

>I think that there probably has been at least a hundred lawsuits on the Kenyan’s birth certificate so far. Most have been thrown out because of “lack of standing”, really cowardice on the part of the judge.<

true, but there is one man who has standing an d could have prevented all of this before it even happened. Buthe didn’t.

McCain ... I am so dissappointed in him. He better not be the GOP favorite in ‘12


80 posted on 06/16/2010 2:29:46 AM PDT by Munz (All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.)
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