June 6, 2012 11:24AM # Why Obama Strikes Out In Court: Outlandish Claims of Federal Power By [Ilya Shapiro](https://www.cato.org/people/ilya-shapiro) --- SHARE It’s because the Justice Department has been making ridiculous arguments about extra-constitutional federal powers that don’t even get one vote at the Supreme Court. As I [explain](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303918204577444221444859342.html) in the *Wall Street Journal* today: > The government’s arguments across a wide variety of cases would essentially allow Congress and the executive branch to do whatever they wanted without meaningful constitutional restraint. This view is at odds with another unanimous Supreme Court decision, Bond v. United States (2011). Bond vindicated a criminal defendant’s right to challenge the use of federal power to prosecute her. As Justice Kennedy wrote, “\[F\]ederalism protects the liberty of the individual from arbitrary power. When government acts in excess of its lawful powers, that liberty is at stake.” > > > If the government loses in the health-care or immigration cases, it won’t be because its lawyers had a bad day in court or because the justices ruled based on their political preferences. It will be because the Obama administration continues to make legal arguments that don’t pass the smell test. [Read the whole thing](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303918204577444221444859342.html). ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).