President Obama calls out the Supreme Court:

President Obama challenged the Supreme Court on Monday to uphold his administration’s sweeping health-care reform legislation, arguing that overturning the law would amount to an “unprecedented, extraordinary step” of judicial activism.

In his first public comments since the court wrapped up oral arguments last week in its review of the 2010 law, Obama questioned the authority of the nine-member panel of unelected justices to reverse legislation that was approved by a majority vote in Congress.

Obama made his argument in unusually blunt language that was rare for a sitting president during a pending case, emphasizing the high stakes in an election year and signaling that the White House might seek to turn a loss in the high court into a campaign issue aimed at rallying the president’s liberal base.

“I’d just remind conservative commentators that for years what we’ve heard is, the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint — that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law,” Obama said during a Rose Garden news conference. “Well, this is a good example. And I’m pretty confident that this court will recognize that and not take that step.”

Of course, as the right-wingers are constantly reminding us, it’s only judicial activism by unelected judges when they rule against them. When they rule in favor of them, they have the wisdom of Solomon and how dare anyone, especially the president, attack them for doing their duty?

Obviously this is a campaign pitch based on the assumption that the ruling could go either way. Win, and it vindicates the president and supporters of the law. Lose, and they run against the same mindset that gave us Bush v. Gore and Citizens United.