Ted Cruz Blasts Obama Admin’s Attempts To Expand Federal Power

by Tim Brown

In a press release yesterday by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) he put forth a report titled “The Legal Limit: The Obama Administration’s Attempts to Expand Federal Power.” The Texas Senator analyzed six instances in the last 15 months where the U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the Obama Administration’s arguments for increased federal power.

“When President Obama’s own Supreme Court nominees join their colleagues in unanimously rejecting his Administration’s call for broader federal power six times in just over one year, the inescapable conclusion is that the Obama Administration’s view of federal power knows virtually no bounds,” said Sen. Cruz. “This is a deeply troubling pattern that we will continue to highlight as long as this Administration continues seeking ways to expand its power in direct violation of Americans’ constitutional rights.”

Cruz highlighted the six cases in which the Supreme Court has unanimously rejected since January of 2012. He points out that had the Obama Justice Department been successful in their attempts, they would have had the power to:

• Attach GPSs to a citizen’s vehicle to monitor his movements, without having any cause to believe that a person has committed a crime (United States v. Jones);
• Deprive landowners of the right to challenge potential government fines as high as $75,000 per day and take away their ability have a hearing to challenge those fines (Sackett v. EPA);
• Interfere with a church’s selection of its own ministers. (Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC);
• Override state law whenever the President desires. (Arizona v. United States);
• Dramatically extend statutes of limitations to impose penalties for acts committed decades ago. (Gabelli v. SEC); and
• Destroy private property without paying just compensation. (Arkansas Fish & Game Commission v. United States).

It’s not anything new that we know the Obama administration wants to move more power to the Executive Branch, but at least in these cases their efforts were thwarted. The next report should contain all the power he has gained in his time in office. Cruz has offered the full report for citizens to review. This is the kind of Senator that should represent all American citizens. View the report below.

The Legal Limit: The Obama Administration’s Attempts to Expand Federal Power