The GOP’s favorite law professor: Obama’s mentor, Laurence Tribe

Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on energy and power, has filed legislation to weaken and delay the climate rule. He frequently highlights Tribe’s work.

“One of the best characterizations of the rule was stated by professor Laurence Tribe, the highly regarded liberal scholar of constitutional law at Harvard University,” he said this week, going on to quote Tribe’s “burning the Constitution” remark.

“No less an expert than Laurence Tribe has testified that this proposed rule exceeds EPA’s statutory authority and raises numerous Constitutional issues,” said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the chairman of the full energy panel.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) used Tribe’s arguments in March to urge state governors to ignore the climate rule.

“As Professor Tribe has noted, the Clean Air Act not only fails to authorize the EPA’s plan, it forbids it,” McConnell wrote, adding that Tribe called the plan “constitutionally reckless.”