Today's Supreme Court decision was at least the second major piece of legislation signed into law by President Bush -- the first was the campaign finance/speech legislation struck down in Citizens United v. FEC, today's was the Sarbanes-Oxley post-Enron financial overhaul -- that the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional. President Bush also did not grant a pardon to Conrad Black, whose conviction in a case brought by the Bush administration's Justice Department was also cast under constitutional doubt by the Supreme Court recently. It doesn't look very good for Mr. Bush, who swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Mr. Bush may take the position that he's not a constitutional lawyer, but even so, it's a disappointing record. The big redeeming feature, though, is that it was Justices Roberts and Alito, nominated to the court by Mr. Bush, who helped rule unconstitutional the laws that were signed into law by Mr. Bush. It's great that Mr. Bush chose justices smart enough to see that the laws he was signing were unconstitutional, but it would have been better had the president stepped up and vetoed the laws on constitutional grounds before the judiciary branch had to step in.
