In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
From the Los Angeles Times, a dispatch:
Picking up where they left off Tuesday, the conservatives said they thought a decision striking down the law's controversial individual mandate to purchase health insurance means the whole statute should fall with it.
The court’s conservatives sounded as though they had determined for themselves that the 2,700-page measure must be declared unconstitutional.
"One way or another, Congress will have to revisit it in toto," said Justice Antonin Scalia.
Agreeing, Justice Anthony Kennedy said it would be an "extreme proposition" to allow the various insurance regulations to stand after the mandate was struck down.
Meanwhile, the court's liberal justices argued for restraint. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the court should do a "salvage job," not undertake a “wrecking operation." But she looked to be out-voted.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they shared the view of Scalia and Kennedy that the law should stand or fall in total. Along with Justice Clarence Thomas, they would have a majority to strike down the entire statute as unconstitutional.
Hard to imagine that the L.A. Times would print a story purely to mess with my mind, but this sounds so good--so in excess of even my fondest hopes--that I can't help wondering how it could possibly be true.
Adam Freedman? Calm me.
ObamaCare delenda est.
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May '10
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
Oooooooooh. If Ginsburg used the word "salvage", then even a doubter like me has to admit, the tea leaves are looking awfully friendly.
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
Absolutely fascinating. Two thoughts:
1. If SCOTUS really does scrap the entire law, Obama will launch the biggest crusade against the federal judiciary since FDR, campaigning against them as another elite institution hellbent on obstructing the relief he is trying to bring to everyday Americans.
2. If the law is completely overturned, it likely also hurts Mitt Romney's presidential bid. A lot of conservatives who are otherwise less than anxious to reconcile themselves to a Romney nomination are willing to do so because they see it as the only way to get to a repeal of Obamacare. Take that out of play and their passions may cool further. That's not necessarily rational, but I suspect it will be the reaction in some quarters.
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
Fredo, I'm counting on you to compose the celebratory music. Something a little like the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth, perhaps?
Mar '11
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
So far, Judge Vinson is looking pretty good. Weren't the Obama administration supposed to obey his ruling, or something?
Sep '10
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
I'm a luke warm Romney supporter and I welcome defeat of Obamacare by the Justices. It will also be interesting to see him attack the court that has historically been the left's friend and the right's foe.
Jul '10
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
Today's transcript and audio are available.
I don't know from the economy, but Obamacare is definitely killing my productivity.
Jul '10
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
He already has, in the wake of Citizens United, taking shots at them during a State of the Union when they were sitting in the audience.
Dec '10
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
A law passed unread by the slimmest of partisan majorities, enacted with controversy after controversy, costing already twice the touted price, and antithetical to the individual liberty the nation was founded on cannot possibly be constitutional. I believe anyone without an agenda can see that.
May '10
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
But it will make what will already be an incredibly divisive election even more so. The sole reason voters will give to vote for Obama will be to prevent a Republican from being in a position to nominate a Supreme Court Justice. For many, this would become a single-issue election, with the economy being an after-thought.
The base will have been quite effectively rallied.
Edited on March 28, 2012 at 8:11pmRe: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
A little something to temper your optimism from SCOTUSblog:
Sep '10
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
I don't think I have seen a single analysis of the oral arguments that describes the words and/or demeanor of Justice Thomas. Everyone else is having their words dissected to the finest degree.
Is this becaue he is just sitting there silently with that look on his face that screams, "are we seriously debating this?"
Is it possible that he writes his own opinion in which he goes postal on the modern-day progressive interpretation of the commerce clause?
Apr '11
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
I will be echoing comments composed by others much more eloquently during yesterday's discussion, but I get the feeling that Kennedy will agree with the conservative Justices on this point, only to ultimately conclude that the mandate must be upheld and therefore the entire law will be as well. Just because he agrees the mandate isn't severable doesn't mean he will strike it down.
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
Not to be a wet blanket, but I would remain calm at this point. The argument over "severability" sounds great, because the whole question is: if we strike down the mandate, what else comes down? It's a great hypothetical, but it's just a hypothetical.
Unfortunately, Kennedy's suggestion that the mandate is not severable from the rest of the law might end up being his rationale to uphold the mandate (so as to avoid the imagined "chaos" that would ensue from scrapping such a comprehensive piece of legislation). It was Scalia who said today that it "just couldn’t be right” that all of the ACA provisions unrelated to the mandate had to fall with it. Kennedy might need some convincing that he can strike down the mandate and preserve the other bits of the law.
Mar '11
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
Unless I put my hand in the side of a stricken down Obamacare, I will not believe it.
'Tis the season.
Dec '10
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
Diane Ellis, Ed.: A little something to temper your optimism from SCOTUSblog:
2 minutes ago
So you're saying they may be too lazy to do the work? Either the mandate is constitutional or it is not irrespective of the rest of the law's constitutionality.
May '10
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
Peter Robinson
Fredo, I'm counting on you to compose the celebratory music. Something a little like the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth, perhaps? · 6 minutes ago
What a coincidence. I was just now playing the words to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah in my head, to see if there were possibilities for a parody.
Now I've heard there was a mighty court
That said in Roe v. Wade, go ahead, abort
But you don't really care for due process, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
Justice votes, and a law gets the shiv
The baffled President sings Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah
May '10
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
Your health system was strong but you needed proof
Your congressional majority through the roof
Pelosi's beauty in the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you To a committee chair
You signed the law--not that you'd care
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah.
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah
May '10
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
We conservatives've been here before.
I know this town, she's Babylon's whore.
I used to live in peace before I knew you.
Yeah I've seen your flag on the marble arch,
We never expected our victory march,
But Justice Kennedy's got us all singing Hallelujah.
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah
May '11
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
Trace Urdan: But it will make what will already be an incredibly divisive election even more so. The sole reason voters will give to vote for Obama will be to prevent a Republican from being in a position to nominate a Supreme Court Justice. For many, this would become a single-issue election, with the economy being an after-thought.
The base will have been quite effectively rallied. · 4 minutes ago
Edited 2 minutes ago
Yep, another variation of the Republican War on Women's reproductive rights. And of course their attempt to recreate Jim Crow laws.
Re: In the High Court This Morning. Oh, Can This Be True?
Fredösphere: Your health system was strong but you needed proof
Your congressional majority through the roof
Pelosi's beauty in the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you To a committee chair
You signed the law--not that you'd care
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah.
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah · 0 minutes ago
A work of genius, Fredo.