Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
As your resident pessimist, I predicted that the Supreme Court would uphold the ObamaTax as Constitutional. Which means that I was psychologically much better prepared for what happened on Thursday than many of you.
But when I read that CBS story Troy linked to below, confirming Chief Justice John Roberts' defection, I was aghast. It's one thing to deal with a Supreme Court upholding an unconstitutional invasion of liberty. It's entirely another to realize that it happened over Justice Kennedy's strenuous objections. It's entirely another to read the messy disaster of a decision by Roberts. And when you realize that in the process of making that decision, Roberts managed to completely lose the respect of at least half (if not all) of the other justices in the court .... well, what is there to say?
The more I think about this decision, the more outraged I am. And it sounds like I'm not alone. Byron York writes:
I ran into a prominent conservative member of Congress Friday night just before the huge storms moved through Washington. He was, he said, far angrier on the day after the Supreme Court Obamacare decision than he had been the moment he learned Chief Justice John Roberts had joined the Court’s liberal bloc to uphold the individual mandate at the heart of Obamacare. He didn’t resort to histrionics or profanity, but he was spitting mad — and his anger was growing, not diminishing.
York offers several more examples, along with published critiques such as those by our own John Yoo, before noting that public opinion polls show increased unhappiness with the ruling among many folks on the right.
So what about you? What are your stages of anger? Are you more or less upset than you were initially. Why?
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Comments:
Nov '10
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
Yes, the Tea Party events should resume, but we also have to proclaim, in small or large ways, our stand for American founding principles. Conservatives are loathe to make noise, but this is the time to get out of our comfort zones. You can do something as quiet as wearing a T-shirt. Or you can go further and invite your neighbors over for an hour or two of information and debate. Whatever it is, it will be worth it in the end. We can't let ourselves be left with a gnawing feeling that we didn't do everything in our power, if GOD FORBID, come November, we're stuck with Obama for another four years.
Apr '11
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
Angrier, but it's not over. There's an election coming up. Anger that isn't focused on winning this election is wasted time and feeling.
We've got to take that anger at Justice Roberts and aim it at taking back the White House and the Senate. Just being angry that the Chief Justice doesn't get us any closer to repealing Obamacare.
Mar '11
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
I notice from the ways I drop Robert's name into conversations that I am looking for a fight with *anyone* who wants to defend the man.
I am getting riled up beyond the bounds of civility. That bothers me.
Dec '11
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
I honestly cant take any more of the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Mar '12
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
What hits the "refresh" button on my anger is every piece by a conservative writer explaining the sheer strategic brilliance of Roberts' opinion. I wonder if George Will's parents at some point concluded that a pile of horse manure was the best possible gift for little Georgie, since he takes more pleasure in finely sifting through it for signs of essential horsiness than he ever would from an actual horse.
Dec '10
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
White hot, trending toward going nuclear ... we've lost what was left of our limited constitutional republic ... enumerated powers? the Chinese communist party has more checks and constraints than our pretend constitutional republic ... guess we'll go on pretending that we live in a free country even though all three branches of our federal government have abandoned all pretense that there are any limits to federal authority or power ...
Mar '11
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
We should never forget what a weasel the man is (or as Rob put it, a chicken****). I never will. That answer your question?
Mar '11
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
I too tried to take comfort in Roberts having reined in the Commerce Clause, but it was always a faint comfort.
Roberts didn't close a window only to open a door. He closed a window and knocked out a load-bearing wall.
Feb '12
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
My first thought was that I'm a moron for being the guy who repeatedly commented on a post by Mollie that we needn't worry about Roberts. Bah!
My stages of grief:
Disbelief in the moment I heard the decision;
Resignation by the end of the day, with my saying to a law partner, "You know, if it's a tax, it makes sense that it's constitutional."
Despair that evening, with my commenting to my newly adopted son (17 months old) "The America you were born into is dead."
Then, eagerness to repeal the tax with 51 votes in the senate.
Then, more despair upon realizing that with 51 votes Democrats could instill future "taxes."
And that's where I am----in more despair.
Nov '11
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
I suppose I'm not really angry. Just more intense about November. Up til now we had two chances to get rid of the thing -- now we have only one.
In the end, the Constitution is as good as the people want it to be. If they are willing to reelect Obama in spite of this law, the Court can't save us anyway. If we win, and it is repealed, we will probably be better off than if the Court had done it for us by a 5-4 vote.
If we don't, I will never get over how close we were. Kennedy was determined to overturn it.
May '12
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
Well, it did bring out my inner Churchill...
Feb '11
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
My initial red-hot anger and shock has morphed into blue-flame, long-burning, disgust and contempt. I find that my supply of invective and vitriol toward Roberts and the Political Class is regularly refilled, even with my regular expenditures from those reserves. My determination to fight them, defeat Obama and destroy the Left is exponentially greater.
Roberts' thought he was protecting SCOTUS with this political play? He thought wrong. He protected it from the 10% that comprises the Political Class. The rest of us see clearly that the Court is a political body of and for that class, and therefore illegitimate in its current configuration. They are subject to normal political influences and therefore as trustworthy and respect-worthy as the other branches of government. Tar & feather him and banish Roberts forever. There is no redemption for him. He is persona non grata. He is with the enemy. He is a Judas.
We must win come November. This is the last hill to fight on. If Obama is not defeated the remaining options will be very unappealing. A second term of Obama will have this country a national socialist polity and headed for the ash heap of history.
Edited on July 2, 2012 at 7:54pmMar '11
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
Anger isn't it.
I'm not sure what it is to be honest. Concern maybe. Fear?
We are a divided nation. But not divided by conservative and liberal. Nor Republican and Democrat. This is now Us vs Them. The people vs the government. How many have noticed?
My concern/fear is that those in power will play dump and chase with this ruling and run out the clock before we the people can adjust our style of play.
Edited on July 2, 2012 at 7:45pmFeb '12
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
Add this to the long list of reasons this bad law has no legitimacy. Unlike FDR, Obama has to face a quite vocal and not so shy alternative media with far-reaching influence. If there is justice in the world, Obama will have a legacy, but not the one he dreamed of.
Apr '11
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
Call me cynical, but clearly there's no justice there is only power. And we don't have any.
Nov '10
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
I feel even more angry and determined.
See my earlier post on the Member's Feed about the dismissal by the Lefties on the Court of CJ Roberts's opinion on the Commerce Clause as "an essay" and NOT a part of the Court's decision. Here is Ginsburg, J., dissenting, at page 37 of the decision (emphasis supplied):
The more I learn, the worse I feel about CJ Roberts; he trimmed his sails to fill with the liberal wind.
And, look at the "leaks" now coming out about his being turned (over the protestations of Justice Kennedy) by the blizzard of propaganda from the left wing commentariat. Disgusting.
Nov '10
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
The only thing I'm really angry about is the fact that no one seems to be talking about the real issue here. Oh, sure, CNN has a poll up about who likes the decision and who doesn't. But nobody except the right are talking about the issue, that is, is it a tax, or is it a fine. That to me seems to be the key talking point to ensure this fiasco is front and center this election.
Nov '10
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
The only thing I'm really angry about is the fact that no one seems to be talking about the real issue here. Oh, sure, CNN has a poll up about who likes the decision and who doesn't. But nobody except the right are talking about the issue, that is, is it a tax, or is it a fine. That to me seems to be the key talking point to ensure this fiasco is front and center this election.
May '11
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
Both resigned that I live in a country where the constitution seems be a quaint inconvenience and even more determined to change that state of affairs.
Jun '10
Re: Is Your SCOTUS Anger Waxing Or Waning?
I think it's interesting that all the anger is directed at Roberts, when of course there were 4 other justices who voted to uphold the law as well, and wrote that it was legal under the commerce clause too.
I understand the sense of betrayal, that it stings more from someone we thought should know better. But if we really think the Justices' job is to interpret the Constitution as written, we should be even more angry at the liberals who consistently put politics ahead of the law.
This feels to me like another case of eating our own. Roberts is still a vastly better justice than Kagan, Breyer, Sotomayor, or Ginsburg. Let's not forget that.