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The meaning of Chrysler
Power Line — ... The Obama administration's misbehavior in the matter of Chrysyler is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution and the rule of law. In today's Wall Street Journal, Professor Todd Zywicki explains: ...

Chrysler and The Rule of Law:
The Volokh Conspiracy — [ Todd Zywicki , May 13, 2009 at 10:01am ] Trackbacks Chrysler and The Rule of Law: Today's Wall Street Journal has my column on "Chrysler and the Rule of Law" here .

The Rule of Law
The Glittering Eye — Todd Zywicki criticizes the Obama Administration in the Wall Street Journal: Fleecing lenders to pay off politically powerful interests, or governmental threats to reputation and business from a failure to toe a political line? We might expect this behavior from a Hugo Chávez. But it would never happen here, right? Until Chrysler. The close relationship between the rule of law and the enforceability of contracts, especially credit contracts, was well understood by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution. A primary reason they wanted it was the ...

Violating the Rule of Law Without Violating Any Laws
Lawyers, Guns and Money — Todd Zywicki: The close relationship between the rule of law and the enforceability of contracts, especially credit contracts, was well understood by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution. A primary reason they wanted it was the desire to escape the economic chaos spawned by debtor-friendly state laws during the period of the Articles of Confederation. Hence the Contracts Clause of Article V of the Constitution [sic! Seriously, you think that the framers threw a restriction on state government's authority to impair the obligation of contracts...in the ...

Eroding the rule of law
Betsy's Page — Todd Zywicki has a must-read column today in the WSJ about how the Obama administration's shenanigans over Chrysler's bailout by violating the principle that secured creditors have priority in a bailout procedure have eroded the rule of law. The absolute priority rule is a linchpin of bankruptcy law. By preserving the substantive property and contract rights of creditors, it ensures that bankruptcy is used primarily as a procedural mechanism for the efficient resolution of financial distress. Chapter 11 promotes economic efficiency by reorganizing viable but financially ...

Obama Challenges Rule of Law
Boots and Sabers — ... The WSJ nails it . The rule of law, not of men—an ideal tracing back to the ancient Greeks and well-known to our Founding Fathers—is the animating principle of the American experiment. While the rest of the world in 1787 was governed by the whims of kings and dukes, the U.S. Constitution was established to circumscribe arbitrary government power. It would do so by establishing clear rules, equally applied to the powerful and the weak. Fleecing lenders to pay off politically powerful interests, or governmental threats to reputation and business from a failure to toe a political ...

Don’t Brand Them
Stones Cry Out — ... No, no, no, no, no.  Let their actions speak for themselves, from purchasing interests in financial and auto companies, to ignoring bankruptcy law when dealing with those companies in order to pay off special interests, to spending billions (and ...

Obama and the Rule of Law
Slublog — President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009: Our founding fathers, faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.From today's WSJ: The close relationship between the rule of law and the enforceability of contracts, especially credit contracts, was well understood by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution. A ...

An Ordered Society
Neptunus Lex — ... It has been said that politics is all about punishing your enemies and rewarding your friends. If so, the WSJ has lost the plot in the Chrysler bankruptcy: ...

On Chrysler's Chickens Coming Home to Roost:
The Volokh Conspiracy — In my WSJ column on Chrylser last week I asked: Chrysler -- or more accurately, its unionized workers -- may be helped in the short run. But we need to ask how eager lenders will be to offer new credit to General Motors knowing that the value of their investment could be diminished or destroyed by government to enrich a politically favored union. We also need to ask how eager hedge funds will be to participate in the government's Public-Private Investment Program to purchase banks' troubled assets. Bloomberg reports that hedge fund managers burned by Obama now are " ...

A nation with two sets of laws
Hyscience — ... country. Those who shred the Constitution will be swept from power by Constitutional means, including the Second Amendment which was included in the Constitution if ever needed "again" for this specific purpose.Clearly, Americans have forgotten the part about being protected from the overbearing tyranny of government and damned well need to start remembering it before it's too late. Related: Obama's 'Redistribution' Constitution Chrysler and the Rule of Law Cap and Trade Dementia Will Obama ...

A Sycophant in Wolffe’s Clothing
Pajamas Media — ... sway more invidious. What is left unsaid is as troubling as what is said. For example, even a person devoid of cynicism would be somewhat puzzled by the author’s acceptance of Obama’s stated rationales for desiring the presidency: “because I have good ideas” and due to his “deep and abiding love for this country.” In light of his omnipresent ambi t ion , the number of cza r s proliferating, and Obama’s known penchant for interfering with private contracts , to attribute his ascendancy to altruism is absurd. Moreover, Wolffe ...

Frum: History Began When I Decided to Remake Conservatism in My Image
Hot Air » Top Picks — ... than a full-throated defense of the current administration: As wrong and harmful as the Obama administration’s plans are, the administration is playing by the rules of the game. To agitate people into thinking otherwise is to corrode the foundations of the American constitutional regime. Is Obama really playing by the rules of the game? There are legitimate criticisms to be made of this administration’s approach to politics. At the risk of shaking the very foundations of our republic: The Chrysler bankruptcy agreement. ...

Obama Pay Czar To Cut Salaries Of Up To 175 Top Executives
Below The Beltway — ... the firms. As law Professor Stephen Bainbridge points out, this isn’t the first time in the Obama Administration’s nine short months of existence that they’ve shown contempt for contracts and the rule of law: he Obama administration has shown a shocking disregard for the rule of law when contract rights interfere with the administration’s ability to reorder the American economy as it sees fit. As Todd Zywicki observed when Obama threw Chrysler lenders under the bus: The rule of ...