In July The Weekly Standard published a cover story by Fred Barnes about the new crop of state attorneys general who are engaged in an ongoing effort to ensure that President Obama’s political agenda does not exceed constitutional limits. From challenges over Obamacare and the EPA to standoffs with DOJ and the NLRB, the AGs “have done more than Republicans in Congress, statehouses, or anywhere else to block, cripple, undermine, or weaken Obama’s initiatives,” he wrote.
And now they are gearing up to fight President Obama’s court-packing plan on the D.C. Circuit. In a letter sent to Senators this morning, a group of attorneys general — representing Texas (Greg Abbott), Arizona (Tom Horne), Oklahoma (Scott Pruitt), South Carolina (Alan Wilson), Nebraska (Jon Bruning), Georgia (Sam Olens), and Alabama (Luther Strange) — urged senators to “reject President Obama’s nominees to the D.C. Circuit, and to join your colleagues in allocating those judicial resources where they are needed by passing S.699, the ‘Court Efficiency Act of 2013.” The AGs say ”the circumstances surrounding President Obama’s most recent nominations to the D.C. Circuit lead [them] to conclude that he is attempting to use that court to slant the playing field sharply in his favor with regard to challenges to his aggressive regulatory agenda.”
I agree, of course, and applaud these AGs for joining the battle.