What's at Stake as Obama Tries to Intimidate the Supreme Court | Jim Powell | Cato Institute: Commentary

What's at Stake as Obama Tries to Intimidate the Supreme Court | Jim Powell | Cato Institute: Commentary: "There have been cases where a president was upset about an opinion after it was issued, but not cases where a president tried to influence a decision in the making. That might be comparable to jury tampering — usually treated as a felony."

What about FDR's attempt to pack the court?

"By trying to bully another branch of our government, Obama appears to be challenging our federal system itself, based as it is on a separation of powers.

Perhaps we need to remind ourselves how hard people struggled and how much they sacrificed to develop this, the most successful political system ever devised for limiting government power and protecting liberty."

"In 1628, Coke drafted the Petition of Right that aimed to limit the king’s power: (1) taxes couldn’t be imposed without Parliament’s consent; (2) citizens couldn’t be forced to provide food and shelter for soldiers; (3) individuals could be imprisoned only upon the order of a judge; (4) the king couldn’t arbitrarily declare martial law."

"[John Lilburne] was the first person to challenge the legitimacy of the Star Chamber, the English royal court that had become a notorious instrument for suppressing dissent. He was the first to challenge Parliament’s prerogative as a law court for imprisoning adversaries. He was the first to challenge the prosecution tactic of extracting confessions until defendants incriminated themselves. He challenged the standard practice of imprisoning people without filing formal charges. He challenged judges who tried to intimidate juries."

"One of [William Penn's] cases helped secure the right to trial by jury. In 1670, as a young lawyer, he decided to challenge the Conventicle Act that Parliament had passed to suppress “seditious conventicles” (as assemblies of religious dissidents were called). Many Quakers were imprisoned.

The jury acquitted the Quakers, but the Lord Mayor of London refused to accept the verdict. He fined the jury members and ordered that they be held in Newgate Prison until they came back with a guilty verdict. Still, they affirmed their acquittal. After the jury had been imprisoned for about two months, England’s Court of Common Pleas issued a writ of habeas corpus to set those people free. Then they sued the Lord Mayor of London for false arrest. The Lord Chief Justice of England, together with his 11 associates, ruled unanimously that juries must not be coerced or punished for their verdicts."

Madison: “A law violating a constitution established by the people themselves, would be considered by the Judges as null and void.”

"Senator Wheeler thundered [about FDR's court packing plan]: “Create now a political Court to echo the ideas of the executive and you have created a weapon which in the hands of another President could... cut down those guarantees of liberty written by the blood of your forefathers.”"