The Supreme Court is likely to reduce some of the presidential powers obtained in the post-9/11 atmosphere that allowed the White House to unilaterally act without congressional approval, former Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told Newsmax on Tuesday.
With the Supreme Court on Tuesday scheduled to hear arguments on the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan, and Whitaker told Newsmax's "Wake Up America": "I think this case is really going to expand this idea of the major questions doctrines that the Supreme Court has been evolving over the most recent terms."
Whitaker said that, in this case, "the White House has grabbed some language from post-9/11 legislation that suggests that they can forgive student loan debt. ... I think the Supreme Court is going to probably pare that power back.
"If the White House can unilaterally act without Congress's explicit approval, I think that opens a whole host of issues that this White House and its activist president could want to implement some real liberal ideas."
Whitaker also commented on a bill in Idaho that seeks to establish execution by firing squad as a backup to lethal injection, because there have been problems with lethal injections.
"The drugs to do lethal injections are very hard to obtain; they're usually manufactured outside of the United States ... and that the FDA has taken the position that you can't import those, so an alternate to lethal injection is necessary," Whitaker said.
Whitaker added: "The real question is how do you overcome the Constitution's prevention against cruel and unusual punishment ... [and] does a firing squad meet that standard?
"As long as the people of the United States and the various states want the death penalty, we should certainly have a way that the people's will and juries that convict these sociopaths of heinous crimes can have their verdicts implemented."
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Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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