Democrats addicted to gambling on losing challenges to Donald Trump
By Jonathan Turley, opinion contributor — 06/04/19 02:30 PM EDT
With a crucial defeat in federal court on Monday, one would expect House Democrats to be embarrassed at losing long protected precedent supporting legislative authority. Instead, as a federal judge in Washington was rejecting their challenge to President Trump’s order to build a southern border wall, House leaders moved ahead with an assortment of other inadvisable gambles.
The first step for compulsive or pathological gamblers is to admit they have a problem. Well, Democrats have a serious problem, and it is growing. The court defeat was particularly stinging to those of us who have tried repeatedly to persuade House Democrats to recognize that they are destroying themselves with reckless litigation. I have spent decades writing, testifying, and litigating in support of congressional authority. A typical Madisonian scholar, I favor the legislative branch in fights with the executive branch. We have seen a steady erosion of legislative power over the years, and many of us have tried to steer Congress away from reckless litigation.
For more than a year, I have objected to a dangerous strategy of pursuing litigation in a wide array of conflicts with the Trump administration. As someone who has represented the House both as a body and as individual members, my concern was that Democrats would fritter away hard fought victories on congressional authority. Despite such warnings, politics has trumped good judgment. Now the bill has come due with the decision by District Judge Trevor McFadden tossing a challenge by Congress and, with it, the claim that the House has standing to bring such a lawsuit.
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https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/446894-democrats-addicted-to-gambling-on-losing-challenges-to-donald-trump
