By the irresistible logic of the bell curve, the cheerleaders must be out there.

Those men and women who can’t wait to knock the legs out from under libraries, museums, minority businesses, and mediation services by eliminating the federal agencies that support them.

The pom-pom wavers appeared to have gotten their wish, and more, in March when the president signed an executive order targeting the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).

Rah rah!

And as a bonus, the order would also ring the death knell for the United States Agency for Global Media, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.

Sis-boom bah!

Seems, however, the order didn’t delight everyone, with critics noting that the order would also cause mass layoffs, grant freezes, and huge reductions in service.

Then, on May 6, a U.S. District Court judge taking the side of a 21-state coalition sued to halt execution of the order, issued a preliminary injunction, saying in effect, “Uh, guys, you can’t do that.”

In his 49-page memorandum, Judge John McConnell Jr.concluded that the order not only openly ignored the Constitutionally-mandated separation of powers our wise founders established between each branch of government, it also violated the Administrative Procedure Act, “in the arbitrary and capricious way it was carried out.”

“Specifically,” McConnell, wrote, “it ignores the unshakable principles that Congress makes the laws and appropriates funds, and the Executive implements the laws Congress has enacted, and spends the funds Congress appropriated.”

“The States have presented compelling evidence, illustrating that the harms stemming from the dismantling of IMLS, MBDA, and FMCS are already unfolding, or are certain to occur, in light of the significant reduction in personnel available and competent to administer these agencies’ funds and services and the elimination of certain programs that served the States,” McConnell Jr. wrote.

No doubt, that judge is an activist, whacked-out, liberal judge seeking to undermine our constitutional republic by actually referring to the Constitution.

Although the cheerleaders insist that no court outside the Supreme Court has the authority to halt the order, Supreme Court Judge John Marshall concluded otherwise in the foundational case of Marbury vs. Madison (1803).

Marbury matters because it established the power of judicial review for the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts with respect to the Constitution, and eventually for parallel state courts with respect to state constitutions. The exercise of judicial review helps ensure the judiciary remains a co-equal branch of government alongside the legislative and executive branches.

And now, with members of the president’s inner circle reportedly talking about suspending habeas corpus, the pesky principle King John’s barons insisted the tyrannical king agree to by signing the Magna Carta (1215), we need judges like McConnell more than ever to ensure that government at all levels can’t just toss anyone in jail without a hearing first before a judge.

I don’t want anyone tossed in jail arbitrarily, and neither should any American who values our freedoms.

One more recent instance of a judge stepping forward at a moment of peril to our national life to save our butts.

Keep it up.

–

Robert Whale can be reached at robert.whale@auburn-reporter.com.