It was a first, like says Chief Justice John Roberts. But it
had to happen because the “bold” step he is talking about was both inevitable
and overdue. He called it “a president's direct defiance of an act of Congress
in the field of foreign affairs.” Maybe so.
But if the protocol says you steer the ship of state by
going through the chain of command, and you happen to see a torpedo coming
directly at the ship, your human duty is to say damn the torpedo and damn the
protocol. You go ahead and steer the ship away from the torpedo's path knowing
that some people will have the nerve to call for your head to roll. You damn
these people too and move on.
This is what President George W. Bush did in a rare display
of a wisdom he is not known to have had – having most certainly borrowed it
from somewhere this one time. He damned the protocol and damned the torpedoes
by repudiating the law he was coerced (yes, that's coerced) into signing
because it had come attached to an appropriations bill that was necessary to
have for the smooth sailing of the ship.
Having signed the bill that allowed Jewish children of
American parents born in Jerusalem to obtain
American passports saying they were born in Israel ,
George W. Bush said he will not enforce the part about Jerusalem because it interfered with his
authority to conduct foreign affairs granted to him by the Constitution. And so
said President Barack Obama who thought the same about that part of the law,
and refused to enforce it.
This being a clash between the Legislative and Executive
branches of the government, the case went to the Supreme Court where it was
adjudicated in favor of the Executive. The news item giving a full account of
what happened there was written by Adan Liptak under the title: “Supreme Court
Backs White House on Jerusalem Passport Dispute” and was published on June 8,
2015 in the New York Times.
Whatever the merits on either side of this issue, what is
more important to the ship of state is the fact that the issue arose in the
first place because an element of coercion was there and was used in the
process of making the law. And the sad truth is that when you add coercion to
democracy, you create an authoritarian system that is as horrible as any but that
is difficult to confront because it is wearing the clothes of a democracy.
In fact, it is easier to tell Vladimir Putin of Russia he
rules by authoritarian decrees, and easier to work on educating him about the
merits of democracy than it is to tell John Boehner his legislative assembly is
run not by the democratic process but by the dictates of a non-elected lobby
whose interest is to serve the people and organizations it represents. Also,
you will never convince John Boehner that it will serve the nation better to
modernize the method by which the laws are made, thus serve the American people
who voted him and his colleagues into office.
The good thing about the Jerusalem
case going to the Supreme Court and being adjudicated by it -- is that the
extent to which the democratic system was eroded in America – has finally been
revealed. This should prompt the Justices to look out for the cases that will
allow them to pronounce themselves on this subject again.
That is important because it is one thing to horse-trade in
the manner of: “You vote for the wheat farmers of my state, and I'll vote for
the coal miners of your state;” it is another thing to coerce the President of
the Republic with something like: “You give the Israel lobby what it wants, or
we shut down the business of America.” Well, only one thing can be said about
that: Putin's 5,000 nuclear warheads could not damage America as much
as a criminal coercion that comes disguised as an exercise in democracy.
The Supreme Court taking up new cases will fix the broken
system in America ;
also do something good for the Jews. For this to happen, we must be mindful of
the fact that when an Israeli or a Jewish American says 'do this thing because
it will fight anti-Semitism,' the thing will serve to flare up anti-Semitism
instead of fighting it. And you have the mayor of Jerusalem
calling on President Obama to recognize his city as the capital of Israel , a sure
sign that this will increase the incidents of anti-Semitism rather than subside
or eliminate them.