Legal Challenges

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) called President Obama a "bully" Wednesday for his suggestion that it would be "unprecedented" for the Supreme Court to strike down his signature healthcare law.

The senator added that the law would "force people to buy things they don't want," and said the president and his administration "believe Americans are stupid," according to the Rock Hill, S.C., Herald.

DeMint is the second prominent Palmetto State politician to brand the president with the "bully" tag in recent days. Gov. Nikki Haley, a prominent surrogate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, echoed the charge Tuesday.

The White House press secretary defended Obama’s remark that it would be “unprecedented” for justices to overturn the healthcare law.

A former attorney general on Wednesday defended the federal judge who demanded an explanation of comments President Obama has made about the Supreme Court and healthcare reform.

Judge Jerry Smith, who sits on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, ordered the Justice Department to file a three-page letter explaining whether it believes courts have the power to strike down federal laws.

Smith’s order was a response to comments in which Obama said that it would be “unprecedented” for the Supreme Court to overturn his healthcare law. Smith said it appeared that Obama was questioning whether courts have the right to strike down federal laws, which they unquestionably do.

With one syllable, Scalia avoided public discussion about whether striking the healthcare mandate would be an overreach of court authority.

A federal judge in Texas is demanding that the Department of Justice clarify whether President Obama's dig about "judicial restraint" means the administration thinks the Judicial Branch has no right to overturn unconstitutional laws.

Fifth Circuit Judge Jerry Edwin Smith, a Reagan appointee, is part of a three-judge panel hearing a lawsuit challenging the law's restriction on physician-owned hospitals. During oral arguments Tuesday, Smith demanded that Attorney General Eric Holder send him a three-page, single-spaced letter by noon Thursday explaining what Obama meant when he said Monday that ruling against his health law would be an "unprecedented" act of judicial activism.

"What he said was, 'I want to hear from the attorney general what he believes to be the power of a federal judge to consider federal laws,' " a lawyer involved in the case told The Hill. "I'm reading between the lines that that was a reaction to the press statements yesterday by the president."

After Republicans accused him of “threatening” the high court on Monday, the president reiterated that it has "the final say."

Sen. Mike Johanns said the president crossed the line with his warning against judicial activism in the healthcare case.

Last week's Supreme Court arguments over President Obama's healthcare law had little effect on public opinion of the law or the court, according to a new poll.

The latest survey by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press found that most attitudes were unchanged but the arguments had reinforced some partisan opinions about the law.

Sixty-three percent of those surveyed said the arguments did not change their opinion of the healthcare law, and 65 percent said their opinion of the Supreme Court did not change.

But when attitudes did shift, they followed a partisan division. According to the Pew poll, 35 percent of Republicans said they came away with a less favorable impression of the health law, and 32 percent of Democrats reported a more negative view of the Supreme Court.

The president said a ruling against the law would be an “unprecedented” act of judicial activism.

Former president Bill Clinton says the healthcare reform law isn't unconstitutional in any "way, shape or form" and argues the Supreme Court would only strike it down for political reasons.