Further Explanation of the President's Statements.

President Obama’s Statement:  “Ultimately, I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.” - President Obama (April 2, 2012).

White House Explanation of President Obama’s Statement:  “He [Obama] did not mean and did not suggest that … it would be unprecedented for the court to rule that a law was unconstitutional. That’s what the Supreme Court is there to do.” - White House Press Secretary Jay Carney (April 5, 2012).

Obama Administration Letter to Court:  “The power of the courts to review the constitutionality of legislation is beyond question. … It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. … The President’s remarks were fully consistent with the principles stated herein.” - Attorney General Eric Holder (April 5, 2012)

How Can These 3 Statements Possibly Be Reconciled?  In his book “1984,” author George Orwell introduced us to the concept of “doublespeak” which is a combination of the terms “doublethink” and “newspeak.”  As further explained by Orwell, "Political language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language" (1946).

A Modern Definition:  "Doublespeak is language which pretends to communicate but doesn't. It is language which makes the bad seem good, the negative seem positive, the unpleasant seem unattractive, or at least tolerable. It is language which avoids, shifts or denies responsibility; language which is at variance with its real or purported meaning. It is language which conceals or prevents thought.  Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs,"servicing the target" for bombing), making the truth less unpleasant, without denying its nature. It may also be deployed as intentional ambiguity, or reversal of meaning (for example, naming a state of war "peace"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth, producing a communication bypass.”  Wikipedia Encyclopedia (2012).