Here’s a capable summary of parts of our on tap discussion the night before the Obamacare decision’s release. As you see, I didn’t protect the result. I came closer than many by calling attention to the fact that the Court couldn’t recommend effectively than the mandate be re-drawn as a tax. So Roberts, to my surprise, did it on his own. But Roberts, as a judge, shouldn’t pay attention to the partisan composition of Congress. He could have recommended that ineffectively, and then it’s up to the people to decide whether to produce a Congress that would make the recommendation effective.
I agree with Jim below that the discussion concerning the constitutionality of ObamaCare should continue. But it probably won’t. Had the Court “gone partisan” 5-4 the other way–had every justice voted his or her constitutional convictions–it, in fact, would have continued. Roberts’ “statesmanship” has the demerit of only seeming to transcend the partisan divide in the country over the meaning of the Constitution (a divide that has many dimensions) in the name of reconciliation, institutional legitimacy, or whatever.
June 30th, 2012 | 6:36 pm
Thank you for linking to my post! I’m glad you found it capable.
June 30th, 2012 | 9:08 pm
1. One of the few things the base consoled itself with about Bush II was “at least he gave us Roberts and Alito.” That’s gone forever now.
2. The GOP is at least making all the right noises, and no one’s echoing Pelosi’s idiotic “when the Supreme Court decides, it’s like God has spoken” dodge post-Kelo (hey Nancy, why doesn’t that apply to Citizens United?). Obamacare has got to go. Looks like the Tea Party is doing a great job putting the fear of God in these jokers.
3. A President Romney is going to face a very, very skeptical base should he get the chance to nominate a justice. He’ll be well served to go WAAAY outside the recent norm of picking from federal judges who went to Harvard, a constraint that has served the country terribly.
4. The next time a president gets to replace a justice from “the other side” it’s going to be thermonuclear war.
5. I don’t know how ANY nominee to replace Kennedy will ever get confirmed.
July 2nd, 2012 | 10:10 am
Brian, on 4 and 5, probably either party with the majority is now going to go with the nuclear option or its equivalents.
P.S. everyone, Western VA got hit by a major wind storm this Friday…many folks, such as yours truly, w/o power. Several folks, including two in Charlottesville, killed by falling trees (I was glad to see James Ceaser posting here on Saturday), and we’re losing elderly folks every day the AC remains off in this heat wave, which in my half of Lexington, VA, looks to be so until Friday. An 87-year old died on our street just yesterday. We and other neighbors kept checking on her, but without going into details, this was her last summer…
I’ll be posting less, and keep VA and WV in your prayers.
July 2nd, 2012 | 9:20 pm
[...] Dr. Lawler is right that the Supreme Court decision will, in the short-run, serve to dampen discussion of the [...]
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