Obama Lawyers: D.C. Vote Bill Unconstitutional

Andrew M. Grossman / April 01, 2009

Chalk up a big loss for constitutional rule of law, thanks to an Obama Administration sleight-of-hand reported on the front page of today’s Washington Post.

When the Executive Branch needs legal advice, it goes to the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice. OLC is like an in-house Supreme Court: it evaluates the constitutionality of pending legislation and issues binding opinions on the legality of different policy options. And like a court, OLC has a strong institutional memory and tradition; its legal opinions generally don’t change much from administration to administration. In most cases, when the OLC issues an opinion, that is the law, so far as the Executive Branch is concerned.

But, reports the Post, when the OLC issued yet another opinion (there have been several in the past) explaining that the D.C. “voting rights” bill—favored by the Obama Administration and Democrats because it would create a House seat for the heavily Democratic District—would be in clear violation of the Constitution, the Administration decided to ignore its advice: (more…)