SCOTUS’ Smackdown of Obama

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Emperor Barky.

From the Washington Times.

Obama suffered two final defeats in the Supreme Court  on Monday, capping a 2013-2014 term in which the justices delivered several judicial hits to the White House  while taking a firm stand against the unchecked power of the state.

The administration’s losses on Obamacare rules and compulsory union dues served as a rebuke on the Supreme Court’s final day after months of judicial decisions to rein in big government on issues such as snooping without a warrant, campaign finance restrictions and Mr. Obama’s recess appointment powers.

Just as damning was the way the court ruled in some of those cases. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. corralled unanimous votes on privacy and recess appointments — cases that dealt stinging defeats to Obama, himself a lawyer and former lecturer on constitutional law.

In the more than five years that Obama has been in office, the court has rejected the government’s argument with a 9-0 decision 20 times.

During the eight years each in the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the government lost on unanimous votes 15 times and 23 times, respectively. That puts the Obama administration on pace to greatly exceed recent predecessors in terms of judicial losses.

Although Monday’s decisions were not unanimous, congressional Republicans and other critics of Obama saw the rulings as evidence that the Roberts court is acting as something of a final line of defense against a president who brags about his use of executive power to bypass Congress and impose his liberal agenda on the American people.

……Obama’s chief constitutional attorney, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, argued and lost the recess appointments case, a challenge to public employee unions, a major campaign finance case and, on Monday, the latest Obamacare challenge in which the court struck down the administration’s effort to require companies to provide free contraceptive coverage.

Last week, the court unanimously rejected the government’s argument that police be allowed to search Americans’ cellphones without warrants. The court also struck down a Massachusetts law establishing a 35-foot no-protest zone around abortion clinics — a case in which the administration filed a brief supporting the statute.

The best decision is the one striking down the union bullies in Illinois:

The Supreme Court ruled Monday in Harris v. Quinn that politicians can no longer force family members caring for disabled relatives into public sector unions.

In a 5-4 ruling, the court found the state of Illinois violated the constitution when imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich agreed to funnel a portion of home healthcare worker checks to political allies SEIU and AFSCME. The unions collected more than $50 million  from about 20,000 such people over a five-year period.

The decision, authored by Samuel Alito, did not completely limit the ability of public sector unions to collect dues from employees who do not want to join unions. However, the court recognized a category of “partial public employees” and ruled that fees cannot be forcefully extracted from these people.

“PAs are much different from public employees,” Alito’s decision read. “Unlike full-fledged public employees, PAs are almost entirely answerable to the customers and not to the State, do not enjoy most of the rights and benefits that inure to state employees, and are not indemnified by the State for claims against them arising from actions taken during the course of their employment.”

……Pamela Harris, a 55-year-old mother who serves as a personal assistant to her severely disabled son, Josh, sued the state after discovering that the SEIU was taking money from her monthly Medicaid check.

“One penny, one dollar taken out of [the monthly stipend] is taken out of support or services for Josh,” she told the Washington Free Beacon on the eve of oral arguments in January. “Being in a union is incompatible, intrusive, and going to interfere with the care I provide. The union is there to protect the union worker, so I don’t see how Josh benefits.”

Other mothers agreed that the policy was a scheme developed to siphon money from Medicaid beneficiaries to union organizers. Susie Watts, 57, paid SEIU about $60 per month for the privilege of caring for her physically disabled daughter, Libby.

“They’re profiting from the disabled,” she told the Washington Free Beacon in January. “I’m considered a public employee solely for the purpose of paying union dues.”

The union bullies are finally getting taken down a peg.  If all goes well, they’ll all be as dead as Jimmy Hoffa.

The SCOTUS  should have struck down the unconstitutional trainwreck of ObamaCare, but chose to uphold it as a tax, because of the tax penalties therein.  Which really frosts my ass. The socialist big government tactic of individual healthcare mandates cannot be enforced, but if you refuse to buy into it, they’ll turn you upside down, and shake you like a fucking paint mixer until your pockets are empty.

Thanks, assholes. At least you’re catching on to Obama’s bat-shit crazy power grabs.