By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Finally, and maybe for the first time, someone has said “No” to Donald Trump.
About the only other time he may have heard the words “No” was from his two previous wives, who finally divorced him. For sure, it seems that he has never heard the words from his parents, who must have given him his every wish. For sure they staked him with vast sums to start his fiefdom.
It took three justices of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, to end the years and years, some 71, of “Yes” that our new president expects to hear.
Suddenly, our president learned what the “checks and balances,” on which our country is based, actually means. He does not have the right to lord his every decision over the people — nor did any other American president. After all, this is a republic with measures in place so that no man or no department of government can independently run the country. He’s not King.
The justices in San Francisco, two from one party, and one from another, were unanimous in their decision that President Trumps’ immigration executive order was beyond the law. They rejected his thrust that the president has no limits. ““It is beyond question,” the decision said, “that the federal judiciary retains the authority to adjudicate constitutional challenges to executive action.”
Did anyone else except Donald Trump think that his every action was not reviewable by the courts of the land?
What the 45th president is finding these days is that the United States has in place laws, standards and mechanisms that work to insure that the “rule of law” remains paramount. No one else in our government has even thought otherwise. Even when President F.D. Roosevelt attempted to pack the Supreme Court by raising the number of judges form nine to 11, even FDR accepted that court’s decision.
President Trump seems to feel the “No” from the Circuit Judges is only a temporary setback. He’s all set to move the question to the U.S. Supreme Court. We tend to think that even that court won’t give him the “Yes” that he wants. We think these Supreme jurists might even send him a unanimous 8-0 decision that will affirm the Circuit Court decision. After all, the new president has unceremoniously impugned every court in the nation when he maintained that the original Washington (state) federal judge that halted his executive order was a “so-called” judge. We suspect every judge in the nation cringed at such language.
The president’s initial reaction was simply to Tweet his feelings once again. “SEE YOU IN COURT” is the short version. We look forward to the next court action.
Oh, for the days of Calvin Coolidge, remembered as a tight-lipped president. We would only hope that some members of the new White House staff can bring a realization to the part of the new president that he is not required to Tweet on every jab at him.
Yet his Tweets may serve the president’s own backers with reassurance that Mr. Trump is right every time. Many of them, we suspect, pay no attention to many other developments other than Mr. Trumps’ Tweets.
Most of the time our nation is pleased to hear from the views of the president. We never imagined that hearing less from a president would be our prayer.
Grow up, Mr. President. Most of us have learned to accept a “No” before our 71st year.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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