It was two years ago when Barack Obama signed an executive order that placed an undue burden on some prospective contractors. The rule, through the creation of a “blacklist,” was intended to give the federal government the right to embargo labor rule-breakers applying for contract work. However, the rule also had the effect of tossing aside due process. For that reason, a judge this week issued a preliminary injunction against the rule. Here’s a brief background via the Washington Examiner:

“The decision involves a 2014 executive order regarding any company bidding on a federal contract larger than $500,000. Obama’s order, issued by the Labor Department last year, requires bidders to report any violations within the last three years of 14 federal labor and safety laws, as well as violations of any equivalent state laws. The contractors also had to report any pending complaints made against it, regardless of whether a court has reviewed them. If the company wins the contract, it must make follow-up reports every six months until the contract is completed.”

However, the blanket ruling also meant that alleged violators were potentially subject to being blacklisted. In the opinion of Texas District Court Judge Marcia Crone, “[T]he executive branch appears to have departed from Congress’s explicit instructions dictating how violations of the labor law statutes are to be addressed.” She’s absolutely right — the ruling is at odds with the very definition of due process.

Democrats use the same argument on contentious issues like gun control. While issuing a blanket gun ban on everybody who appears on a no-fly list sounds good, the problem is that there are far too many innocent people on there who shouldn’t be. To ignore this is not justice, it’s authoritarianism. Leftists have a fundamental misunderstanding of what the “innocent until proven guilty” concept truly means.