Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
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I really shouldn't say this, but I am going to enjoy this post.
A lot.
It seems that the Left is convinced that Roberts upheld Obamacare by stomping on their dreams of an all powerful government.
John Roberts Saves Us All -- Daily Intel
Roberts health care opinion, Commerce Clause: The real reason the chief justice upheld Obamacare. - Slate Magazine
We now have a new type of bad sportsmanship, whining about winning.
A lot.
It seems that the Left is convinced that Roberts upheld Obamacare by stomping on their dreams of an all powerful government.
Two fears have hovered over American liberals since the legal case against the Affordable Care Act began wending its way through the legal system. The first was a fear that conservatives would succeed in revising what Jeffrey Rosen called (in a prescient and classic 2005 New York Times Magazine story) "The Constitution In Exile" that it would interpret the Constitution to require right-wing economic policy. A second, and darker, fear was that five Republican-appointed justices would concoct a jury-rigged ruling in order to win a huge battle that its party had lost in Congress that wildly partisan Bush v. Gorestyle rulings would now become regular features of the political scene.
The two fears were, of course, deeply intertwined. What happened, and what nobody expected, was that they diverged. The second fear was decisively refuted. The first is very much alive.
The fearful part is that five justices ruled that the Affordable Care Act cannot be upheld under the Commerce Clause. This is a bizarre and implausibly narrow reading if Congress cannot regulate the health-care market, then it cannot really regulate interstate commerce. By endorsing this precedent, Roberts opens the door for future courts to revive the Constitution in Exile.
John Roberts Saves Us All -- Daily Intel
There were two battles being fought in the Supreme Court over the Affordable Care Act. Chief Justice John Robertsand Justice Anthony Kennedydelivered victory to the right in the one that mattered.
Yes, Roberts voted to uphold the individual mandate, joining the court's liberal wing to give President Obama a 5-4 victory on his signature piece of legislation. Right-wing partisans are crying treason; left-wing partisans saw their predictions of a bitter, party-line defeat undone.
But the health care law was, ultimately, a pretext. This was a test case for the long-standingbut previously fringecampaign to rewrite Congress' regulatory powers under the Commerce Clause.
...
Roberts was smarter than that. By ruling that the individual mandate was permissible as a tax, he joined the Democratic appointees to uphold the lawwhile joining the Republican wing to gut the Commerce Clause (and push back against the necessary-and-proper clause as well). Here's the Chief Justice's opinion (italics in original):
Roberts health care opinion, Commerce Clause: The real reason the chief justice upheld Obamacare. - Slate Magazine
We now have a new type of bad sportsmanship, whining about winning.