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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: Qbert

It has nothing to do with constitutionality. 0bama’s statement makes perfect sense if you add the “or else” to it. They will hand over the dough or else.
“Or else” there are many, many unpleasant things he can legally do.
So. “We can do this easy, or we can do it hard.”


81 posted on 06/16/2010 3:45:37 AM PDT by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast (STOP the Tyrananny State.)
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To: Qbert

“Where Does Obama Get the Authority?”

We are now living in a democracy, a dictatorship of the proletariat where the voters worship the leader and give him the backing of a congress that lays down and purrs.

All those Democrats and brilliant, brilliant,
really-really intelligent independents hate the greed and evil of big oil.

So, the leader of the proletariat will take whatever property he wants because “the people” want him to punish those evil and greedy capitalists who are destroying the earth.

(Hail to the Chief takes on new meaning.)

IMHO


82 posted on 06/16/2010 4:49:13 AM PDT by ripley
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To: Balata

O’Really? BOR should resign from Fox and be Alvin Greene’s campaign manager.


83 posted on 06/16/2010 5:18:12 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Trying to reason with a leftist is like trying to catch sunshine in a fish net at midnight.)
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To: Qbert

84 posted on 06/16/2010 6:01:45 AM PDT by gura (If Allah is so great, why does he need fat sexually confused fanboys to do his dirty work? -iowahawk)
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To: gogogodzilla
Someone has to be a big enough ‘jack@$$’ to publicly call Obama’s bluff in a completely humiliating manner. Which would egg Obama on, forcing him into a situation where he'd try to do something he can't... and then get beat down for it.

That is exactly what needs to happen, and it needs to happen NOW, before he grabs anything else.

The people around the gulf need $ immediately, isn't that FEMA's job?

85 posted on 06/16/2010 7:00:35 AM PDT by SCalGal (Friends don't let friends donate to H$U$ or PETA.)
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To: Qbert
Where does the president get the lawful power to order any private-sector company—BP or any other—that it must surrender its money?

It's the Chicago Way: give up the money and I won't hurt you as much as I otherwise would.

86 posted on 06/16/2010 7:03:16 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Public healthcare looks like it will work as well as public housing did.)
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To: Ken H
Asset forfeiture laws have been in force against citizens for years now. If those laws can pass muster with the courts, then what's going to stop this asset seizure?

The "Laws" must be invoked and applied in a court decision for the specific case in question not declared in force in a rambling diatribe by a dictatorial wannabe.

87 posted on 06/16/2010 7:49:52 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannolis. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: Qbert
Here's the full text of President Obama's speech about the BP disaster/gusher in the Gulf of Mexico ...

Obama's Remarks To Nation On Oil Spill [Full Text]


88 posted on 06/16/2010 8:05:49 AM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: Freddd

Why should BP have to pay for the people ruined by HIS moratorium?


89 posted on 06/16/2010 12:13:47 PM PDT by bukkdems (Polygamy produces cannon fodder, overpopulation, inbreeding, poverty, pederasty and misogyny.)
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To: Qbert

Dear Lord, help us to drive the left entirely out of political and social power, first in the US, the country You founded, and then across the face of the Earth. Amen.


90 posted on 06/16/2010 12:33:29 PM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: Qbert

Obama is a buffoon with a law degree.

A very common mistake for non-lawyers is to forget you can not threaten criminal prosecution in a civil matter.

Obama, who could not practice law to save an ant, obviously does not know this or care. He is threatening the BP officials with criminal prosecution or pay up. He is using the surrogates to do the dirty work threat and then join them after the goombas have softened the BP execs up.

It is just a mob rough up without the brass knuckles.


91 posted on 06/16/2010 12:58:44 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Qbert

He gets the power, not the constitutional authority, because BP is probably guilty of serious crimes in its operation of the Deepwater Horizon rig. Funny now being threatened with corporate extinction can concentrate the mind and loosen the purse strings, sort of like being thretened with hanging when you know the threatener can do just that.


92 posted on 06/16/2010 1:05:09 PM PDT by libstripper
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To: longtermmemmory

The audience sees only the monkey on a string, the organ grinder is the real enemy.


93 posted on 06/16/2010 1:05:36 PM PDT by norraad ("What light!">Blues Brothers)
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To: Qbert
Yesterday afternoon on Cavuto's "Your World", Judge Napolitano said no judge would allow this violation, it has to be voluntary.
94 posted on 06/16/2010 1:08:04 PM PDT by MozarkDawg
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To: Star Traveler

Thank you Star Travleer.

You can also find it here on this thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2535484/posts?page=50#50


95 posted on 06/16/2010 2:44:53 PM PDT by Cindy
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To: Cindy

Ahhh.... that’s only the second time I’ve seen the full text on a Free Republic thread, besides the thread that I started ... :-)

I didn’t see it when I posted here... good going ...


96 posted on 06/16/2010 2:59:18 PM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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