Comments on: How Obama’s DOMA Decision Could Affect Obamacare

By: Joseph

Joseph — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:02:33 +0000

The inability or unwillingness of Party A to understand that whatever power it grabs will then become available to Party B within an election cycle or two is one of the more entertaining, if depressing, political spectacles. President Bush (comparatively) tame little power grabs paved the way for Obama to dispense with coherent argument altogether, and do stuff.

The crowd cheers when their guy just does stuff, you know, just cuts through all that legalistic red tape. Then, they howl when the other guy does it.

By: Gregory K. Laughlin

Gregory K. Laughlin — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:02:27 +0000

Despite the wailing of the other side to the contrary, the DOJ’s defense of DOMA was half-hearted at best under Obama. Better to have them representing the administration’s true views and having someone who believes in DOMA defend it.

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:07:49 +0000

The law will not go undefended,as members of Congress have the opportunity to defend the law. Courts generally defer to the constitutional judgment of Congress, but there is no reason for the President to do so. Having said that, I suspect that Orin Kerr is right that a Republican President might refuse to defend the constitutionality of the individual mandate. If that occurred, that statute likewise would not go undefended.