The Obama Administration and Congressional allies like Sen. John Kerry are seeking to silence government lawyers who point out their mistakes and misinterpretations of the law:
"A month ago, the Law Library of Congress reviewed the removal of Manuel Zelaya from his post as President of Honduras, an act that the Obama administration called a 'coup' and demanded reversed for its illegality. To the embarrassment of the White House and State Department, the Congressional body determined that Honduras acted lawfully in removing Zelaya for his crimes against their constitution, although they determined that his exile broke Honduran law. Now John Kerry wants the Law Library to retract its findings, apparently trying to rewrite history to hide the facts of the case."
Earlier, the Obama Administration overruled career justice department lawyers in voting rights and voter intimidation cases, to give a green light to unconstitutional legislation, and protect an Obama poll-watcher and Democratic Party official from being held accountable for wrongdoing. Obama also fired an inspector general for uncovering wrongdoing by a prominent Obama supporter.
Contrary to what Senator Kerry claims, there are many legal commentators who say that Honduras's removal of ex-president Manuel Zelaya was legal -- and thus, not a coup.
The ex-president’s removal was perfectly constitutional, say many lawyers and foreign policy experts, including attorneys Octavio Sanchez, Miguel Estrada, and Dan Miller, former Assistant Secretary of State Kim Holmes, Stanford’s William Ratliff, and the Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady.
Former Secretary of State James Baker, a lawyer, says that Honduras's removal of Zelaya from office was legal, although its exiling of him was not.
Honduras removed ex-president Zelaya after he systematically abused his powers: he sought to circumvent constitutional term limits, used mobs to intimidate his critics, threatened public employees with termination if they refused to help him violate the Constitution, engaged in massive corruption, illegally cut off public funds to local governments whose leaders refused to back his quest for more power, denied basic government services to his critics, refused to enforce dozens of laws passed by Congress, and spent the country into virtual bankruptcy, refusing to submit a budget so that he could illegally spend public funds on his cronies.
Journalists nonsensically refer to Honduras’s removal of its ex-president as a “coup” even while admitting that it was approved by the country’s supreme court. But if it was legal, by definition, it cannot be a coup, since a coup is defined as “the unconstitutional overthrow of a legitimate government by a small group.”
Moreover, the ex-president’s removal was not a “coup” because it was not committed by a “small group,” as the definition of “coup” requires. The removal of Honduras’s president was supported by the entire Honduran Supreme Court, an almost unanimous Honduran Congress, and much of Honduran society. Honduras did not lose its government, but merely replaced one illegitimate part of it: its overbearing president. And his removal from office (as opposed to his subsequent exile) was clearly legally justified.
Law professors like James Lindgren, Jonathan Adler, Glenn Reynolds, and William Jacobson have also criticized the Administration's position on Honduras.
By levying sanctions on Honduras, and refusing to recognize its current government, the Obama Administration has destabilized the country, one of the poorest in Latin America, resulting in mass layoffs leading to 65% unemployment among workers at small and medium-size enterprises in Honduras. Vulnerable social groups in Honduras, like orphans, have suffered especially acutely, and malnutrition has risen.
While attacking Honduras' democratically-elected Congress and Supreme Court for their role in removing and replacing the country's ex-president and would-be dictator, the Obama Administration has paid little attention to human-rights abuses in countries ruled by dictatorships. Those countries include Guinea, where troops recently committed mass rapes against women in broad daylight; Niger, where the president recently turned himself into a dictator; Iran, where vast numbers of pro-democracy demonstrators have been tortured or killed; and Nicaragua, right next door to Honduras, where the unpopular president, who routinely engages in vote fraud, is busy trampling on constitutional term limits in order to turn himself into a president-for-life.
Comments
Words cannot describe how mad this article makes me. This President consistently takes the opposite side of freedom and liberty in regards to foreign events(not to mention our domestic liberties being trampled on). But he will never be held accountable anywhere near the level Republicans are.
Great article.
@UtahAlumnus- It's true. I also feel like Democrats and in particular Obama get away with things that Republicans could never get away with (for example, Obama's nomination is "historic"; Michael Steele's nomination as RNC chair is mocked as a "gimmick").
I'm also sick of the "transparency" that isn't so transparent and the "it's not our fault, it's Bush's" rhetoric.
I would be worried about our country spiraling quickly toward socialism (which it may still be on trajectory for), but luckily for us Obama hasn't really done squat since taking office. But apparently giving vague speeches full of idyllic pageantry can win you the Nobel Peace Prize. Go figure.
This is nonsense. The administration is supporting the true president of Hondorus. His ouster was what was illegal. Those in Washington like DeMint, who are seeking to undermine our government and our president are the ones who are wrong.
@Paul: I suggest you read the Law Library report. It makes your comment look like nonsense.
Copy of report here:
media.sfexaminer.com/documents/2009-002965HNRPT.pdf
Is this also an indictment of our openly crimial administration? This sounds just like the Obama camp...From he article above...
"...systematically abused his powers: he sought to circumvent constitutional term limits, used mobs to intimidate his critics, threatened public employees with termination if they refused to help him violate the Constitution, engaged in massive corruption, illegally cut off public funds to local governments whose leaders refused to back his quest for more power, denied basic government services to his critics, refused to enforce dozens of laws passed by Congress, and spent the country into virtual bankruptcy, refusing to submit a budget so that he could illegally spend public funds on his cronies."
Gosh, ounds like the Hope and Change we enjoy!
Sorry for the drpped letters, I need a new keyboard. But, I'm sure you get the point.
"the Obama Administration has destabilized the country"... Really? Obama destablized the country? Wow, that is so awesome how the US can destabilize an entire sovereign country simply by not recognizing the govt. That is has nothing to do with the actual events in the country, but all about us. Pretty cool.
To the posters with Paul's view: (The administration is supporting the true president of Honduras). Please do me a favor and don't vote anymore! It's depressing that my vote has to go to cancel out a moron's.
Obama IS the opposite of Freedom - he is Big Brother to our homegrown marxists that in a more pure age would have been unable to hold elected office. Great example of the dumbing down of America. Obama can go to Hell.
@Laura - Try reading the entire sentence and not just cherry-picking your quote. The sentence begins with "By levying sanctions on Honduras..." The refusal to recognize the government was followed by sanctions that have destabilized their economy. And the refusal to recognize the new government would cause some of our allies to think twice about trading/investing there for fear of incurring Obama's wrath.
OhBummer clearly feels a sense of kinship with Third World banana republic dictators like Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, Manuel Zelaya, and some of those other bloodthirsty funny bunnies in Central and South America. All of these dictators should be killed, although this would leave OhBummer with no kids his own age to play with. How sad.
Yi Ha ***
Minister of Information
Peoples' Capitalist Republic of Whizbangistan
*** Pronounced "YEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
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