Israel Matzav: More than just stupidity?

Sunday, August 14, 2011

More than just stupidity?

This is the first live post of the weekend. If you followed me on Twitter, you would know already that the reason for this is that I took the wrong computer to the hospital on Saturday night.

You will recall that this past week I covered the story of the White House 'cleansing' its web site from references to Jerusalem, Israel.

I treated that story as yet another instance of the rank amateurism of the Obama administration. James Taranto sees a more devious, albeit failed, agenda.

As the Sun acknowledges, "the cutlines on the White House photos were themselves not formal legal recognition of sovereignty." It is only symbolic. But so too, the Zivotofskys argue, is the change in policy dictated by the 2002 law. If the White House website can acknowledge that Jerusalem is in Israel without undermining the administration's diplomatic position, why can't Congress, in a law governing only the administration of vital documents, compel the State Department to do the same?

The White House changed its website in an attempt to shore up its legal position by depriving the Zivotofskys of this argument. It is at least mildly deceptive, but it will succeed only if it escapes the notice of the Supreme Court.

But if the guys at the White House thought they could get away with this, they didn't read footnote 10 of Chief Justice John Roberts's opinion for the court in Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett (citations and extraneous quotation marks omitted): "Prior to oral argument in this case, the Citizens Clean Elections Commission's Web site stated that 'The Citizens Clean Elections Act was passed by the people of Arizona in 1998 to level the playing field when it comes to running for office.' The Web site now says that 'The Citizens Clean Elections Act was passed by the people of Arizona in 1998 to restore citizen participation and confidence in our political system.' "

The court had previously held that preventing corruption was a "compelling state interest" that justified some restrictions on political speech. But as the chief justice noted, "we have repeatedly rejected the argument that the government has a compelling state interest in 'leveling the playing field' that can justify undue burdens on political speech." The commission, a state government agency, was altering its public statements to bring them into line with its legal defense--precisely what the White House is now doing.

In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan rejected what she inferred to be the majority's claim "that a statement appearing on a government website in 2011 (written by who-knows-whom?) reveals what hundreds of thousands of Arizona's voters sought to do in 1998 when they enacted the Clean Elections Act by referendum." She added: "Just to state that proposition is to know it is wrong." Maybe so, but the Obama administration's position in Zivotofsky was not adopted by plebiscite, so that even if you accept Kagan's rebuttal in the Arizona case, it would not apply here.

The White House website's photo captions may not prove decisive to the outcome of Zivotofsky v. Clinton. But if Obama's men thought that pulling a stunt like this on the Web-savvy Roberts court would strengthen their case, they really are a bunch of amateurs.

Does the White House really think that Chief Justice Roberts is that slow? Maybe it does. After all, Senator Obama voted against Roberts' confirmation. Revenge is sweet, isn't it?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Chief Justice John Roberts, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky, US Supreme Court