(CNN) -- In what must be the most extraordinary statement of his presidency, Barack Obama on Monday blasted the possibility that the United States Supreme Court might overturn the Affordable Care Act. Obama said the court would take an "unprecedented, extraordinary step" if it overturns the law, because it was passed by "a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress." Setting aside the point that the ACA did not pass with an overwhelming majority, but by a party-line vote in the Senate and seven votes in the House, and without the support of a single member of the Republican Party, the most astonishing thing about Obama's diatribe was the fundamental misunderstanding of our constitutional tradition it revealed.
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President said top court would break with precedent if it overturns the health care law
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Stephen Presser says Obama, who taught constitutional law, should know better
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He says the Supreme Court has long exercised power to overturn unconstitutional laws
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Presser: Judicial review doesn't usurp Congress' power; it maintains the rule of law
But if the @placeholder's individual mandate is rejected, this will be fully within the legitimate exercise of judicial powers.