The House must sue to block illegal Iran nuke pact

Emergency prescription for the House:  Enjoin President Obama from dropping the sanctions by amending H.R. 3662, the Iran Terror Finance Transparency Act introduced by Rep. Russell (R-Okla.).

Indication for intervention:  Iran has already violated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in multiple ways—inter alia by having test-fired two ICBMs—while Obama has not initiated any snap-backs, passivity that had been predicted by JCPOA critics.

{mosads}Contraindication for remaining inert:  America will become the #1 global funder of terrorism by releasing $150 billion to Iranian Islamists.

Dosage regimen:  A model filing was formulated in November that is based upon the lawsuit filed by former-Speaker Boehner (R-Ohio) against the administration’s implementation of ObamaCare, for which the House was granted standing.

Inability to invoke alternative interventions:  Facing filibuster in the Senate—before a presidential veto would even become necessary—multiple proposals intended to tighten the sanctions are doomed, including the Qassam by Rep. Roskam (R-Ill.) and rumored resolutions by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), and Brad Sherman (D-Calif.).

Urgency for initiating therapy:  Secretary of State Kerry announced on 1/7/2016 that implementation was imminent.

Disease pathogenesis:  Seventeen prior essays—dating back to May—have explored how rapidly and methodically the underlying malignancy has metastasized globally, the most recent of which have elucidated the legal underpinnings of this effort and the flimsy rationalizations for procrastination that have been diagnosed.

Side-effects of this treatment:  This would undermine the unholy alliance struck with Tehran and Moscow against traditional Middle East allies, with a positive ripple-effect forcibly anticipated regarding relations with Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Potential toxicity of litigation:  The ayatollahs will call for “Death to America and Israel” more frequently than the current schedule, customarily before Friday Prayers and on all national holidays.

Mechanism of action:  H.R. 3662 was ordered favorably reported to the House floor by voice vote by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on 1/7/2016.

Interactions with other pronouncements:  105 congressmen wrote to President Obama asking that he freeze the Iran nuke deal on 12/17/2015, to which no response has been received, and a just-published op-ed by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge details the profound rationales for action.

Prior legislative history:  Former-Speaker Boehner said the foundation for litigation had been laid by Roskam’s resolution—passed four months ago—that had determined lack of compliance with the Corker-Cardin Act, a.k.a. S615, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015.

Alternative approaches: The House could pass Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R-Texas) stand-alone resolution that empowered the House to sue by declaring that Obama’s default rendered the Corker-Cardin review process moot and that this pact requires senate ratification as a treaty.

Differential diagnosis: Obama has characterized the JCPOA as a “political commitment,” an obscure designation that hasn’t been tested in the judiciary, rather than either a treaty or an executive-[legislative] agreement.

Pharmacokinetics:  The aforementioned model filing is based on this cascade of causes-of-action:

• It has not been signed by anyone—including an Iranian—so it is unenforceable.

• It must be ratified by the Senate because it is a treaty, per Gibbons v. Ogden.

• It undermines American support for Israel’s right to exist and survival, ignoring the unambiguous “sense” of Congress, as articulated in Corker-Cardin.

• It was improperly implemented through passage of Corker-Cardin due to fundamental misrepresentations regarding conventional missiles and withheld data that actually can be accessed.  

• It violates the Non-Proliferation Treaty by permitting Iran permission to go-nuclear.
  

• Neither the pact nor Corker-Cardin contains a severability clause and, thus, if any component of either document is flawed, the entire pact cannot be portrayed as having been approved.

Anticipated sequellae: Concern that such a filing could yield a protracted battle that would ultimately have to reach the Supreme Court is misguided, for an injunction would stop Obama from releasing the funds in the interim and most all of the above bullet-points feed into the narrative that this out-of-control POTUS must be judicially restrained, per Marbury v. Madison.

Prognosis:  Were the SCOTUS wish to rule narrowly and thereby sidestep characterizing the pact, it could simply state that this unsigned document does not carry the force-of law.

Overdose risk: Kerry refused to state he would “follow the law” governing existing congressional sanctions if Congress voted to override a veto [“I can’t begin to answer that at this point without consulting with the President and determining what the circumstances are”].

Interactions:  The ability of senators to act—either by collectively invoking the nuclear option or by individually invoking Coleman v. Miller—was elucidated in a prior Front Page Magazine essay.  

Systemic implications:  Because this deal is interwoven with Obama’s Islamophilic foreign policy, Congress can place Obama’s failed “following from behind” doctrine into receivership, before any more damage occurs throughout 2016.

Necessity to use this intercession to discount unproven methodologies:  Narratives subtly assuaging concern with Obama’s having cozied-up to Rouhani/Khamenei have been manifest in covertly progressive outlets such as Quartz, which published a puff-piece on an allegedly-liberal Iranian grand-ayatollah and claimed Saudi Arabia is more dangerous than is Iran because its decision to execute Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr was allegedly-designed to provoke Iran into an expansion of military engagement.

Executive summary:  The House must now stop Obama from granting Iran both the funding for international terrorism and a pathway to the Bomb…ASAP!

Sklaroff is a political activist and has been a Republican committee person for more than two decades; he has litigated against implementation of the Master Settlement Agreement with the tobacco industry due to flawed oversight, against the creation of health-insurer Highmark because it created a monopoly and monopsony, and against unconstitutional levels of public funding for two sports stadiums in Philadelphia.