King Rick Scott's 'supreme executive power'

Rosalie Whiley has filed suit against Gov. Rick Scott. The governor froze all regulation for review. Even though Scott could not cite a regulation that was impeding the private sector. Whiley says the freeze affected the Department of Children and Families from renewing her food stamp application. Scott's attorneys countered by stating the governor has "supreme executive power."

Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte wrote a brief and noted that King Arthur in Monty Python & the Holy Grail cited "supreme executive power" over all of the Britons.

On May 23, Whiley's attorneys poked fun at Scott's claim to "supreme executive power" by suggesting that "the Governor's theory seems to have come from a Monty Python skit. See the discourse between 'Arthur, King of Britons' and 'Dennis the Constitutional Peasant,' from Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

In that scene from the 1975 cult classic comedy, King Arthur explains to Dennis, a filth-covered peasant, that Arthur rules over all Britons because a mystical Lady of the Lake "held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. That is why I am your king."

Dennis responds: "Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony … You can't expect to wield supreme executive power because some watery tart threw a sword at you."

Here is the scene from Monty Python & the Holy Grail.