SCOTUS Christmas - Take Two

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Okay, this time is not a test run:

Today, the Supreme Court rules on at least these two cases:

* The Health Care Reform Act: A collection of cases regarding the Constitutionality of the mandate, of the Medicaid expansion, etc.

* United States v. Alvarez: A case regarding the Constitutionality of the Stolen Valor Act on First Amendment grounds. We discussed this last week.

Open thread of sorts. The rulings should start hitting around 10am, any last-minute predictions, complaints, snark?

Comments

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting to get royally fucked by the country I defended. But I'm a veteran, so we're used to that sort of thing. Just put it on our tab.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I heard a panhandler the other day yell to an unsupportive passerby, "I killed terrorists for you." He may not have realized which city he was in.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

snark?

For the record, you asked for it. ;)

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I figured I'd be preemptive about it.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Lawrence Tribe, the Harvard professor who taught both Chief Justice Roberts and President Obama (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/ns/msnbc_tv-hardball_with_chris_matthews/#47986564) said last night he would be more surprised if Roberts overturned the mandate. And it was his prediction last night that it will stand 6 to 3.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Individual MANDATE STANDS!

The bottom line: the entire ACA is upheld, with the exception that the federal government's power to terminate states' Medicaid funds is narrowly read.

[foreverbeach.livejournal.com]

That's nothing, Libertarian Legal Theorist Stephan Kinsella predicted this too:

My guess: it will be upheld, and only 2 or 3 will vote to strike down any of it (probably Thomas and Alito, and maybe Roberts; not Scalia, the majoritarian, or Kennedy, the unprincipled waffler). The majority will have to realize that overturning this law will have to have consequences for many existing and possible future federal programs and laws, and they will not want to threaten the underpinnings of their cushy perches.

I do hope I am wrong and that it is overturned. But it is arguably constitutional: the whole thing could be done by a taxing provision, and taxes are sadly constitutional. And the mandate is a tax, whether it's called one or not. And Sheldon Richman has persuaded me that the IC clause is unfortunately broader than we libertarians would like it to be. The problem is all these years libertarians have either pretended, or actually self-deluded themselves, that the Constitution is such a great thing, quasi-libertarian, and that if we only return to it all would be fine. IN order to find a way to argue for incremental changes towards liberty, we say "just restore the Constitution" and in so doing we buy into the myth that the Founding, the Founders, and the Constitution were great and quasi-libertarian.

[foreverbeach.livejournal.com]

This is also funny.

Remember who appointed Roberts. Now look at the voting on his confirmation: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00245

American politics is the greatest spectacle of humor on the planet.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Anyone who brags about their military medals is probably lying.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Except for these medals. They're real.



I've won lots of them!

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Can we have an Obama's uphill battle tag on this?

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Frothy mixture is funnier.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I'd agree with that under normal circumstances, actually.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

OBAMA'S UPHILL BATTLE!!!!!!

[foreverbeach.livejournal.com]

Here's what I don't understand: Ob-ma is a Constitutional Law scholar. No, more than that, he is a professor of Constitutional Law, an expert if you will. He clearly explained that the individual mandate is not a tax back in September of 2009 (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2009/09/obama-mandate-is-not-a-tax/).

STEPHANOPOULOS: You were against the individual mandate…
OBAMA: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: …during the campaign. Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?
OBAMA: Well, hold on a second, George. Here — here's what's happening. You and I are both paying $900, on average — our families — in higher premiums because of uncompensated care. Now what I've said is that if you can't afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn't be punished for that. That's just piling on. If, on the other hand, we're giving tax credits, we've set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we've driven down the costs, we've done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you've just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances. And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that's…
STEPHANOPOULOS: That may be, but it's still a tax increase.
OBAMA: No. That's not true, George. The — for us to say that you've got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it's saying is, is that we're not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase. People say to themselves, that is a fair way to make sure that if you hit my car, that I'm not covering all the costs.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But it may be fair, it may be good public policy…
OBAMA: No, but — but, George, you — you can't just make up that language and decide that that's called a tax increase. Any…
STEPHANOPOULOS: Here’s the…
OBAMA: What — what — if I — if I say that right now your premiums are going to be going up by 5 or 8 or 10 percent next year and you say well, that's not a tax increase; but, on the other hand, if I say that I don't want to have to pay for you not carrying coverage even after I give you tax credits that make it affordable, then…
STEPHANOPOULOS: I — I don't think I'm making it up. Merriam Webster's Dictionary: Tax — "a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes."
OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam's Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you're stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn't have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition. I mean what…
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, no, but…
OBAMA: …what you're saying is…
STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. But your critics say it is a tax increase.
OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I'm taking over every sector of the economy. You know that. Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we're going to have an individual mandate or not, but…
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it’s a tax increase?
OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion.

How did the Supreme Court screw this up so badly?

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

The President didn't want to call it a tax increase because all the Tea Party loonies would go apeshit over it. Him denying it's a tax is pure politics. I doubt the Supreme Court took this interview into consideration, it's hardly relevant to the actual legal standing.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The Healthcare Bill stood. And now I predict people will claim the Supreme Court is a bunch of Soviet agents trying to destroy liberal free market policies in the USA.

[foreverbeach.livejournal.com]

I just think the court needs to be put in check for calling Ob-ma a liar.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Headline: OBAMA IMPOSES HUGE TAX INCREASE ON STRUGGLING AMERICANS. -SCOTUS

[dwer.livejournal.com]

I see you're reading Fox News again.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Is that American or European football?

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Christmas came early:

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

That looks like it would help make the garden grow.

[existentme.livejournal.com]

I'm extremely pleased and pleasantly surprised by the Alvarez ruling, the margin, a bonus.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

As am I. I'm not pleased with who was in the minority on it, though. Scalia I kind of expected, but Alito and Thomas?

[fornikate.livejournal.com]

IDGI. why are repubs mad about something was romney's idea?

[kgbman.livejournal.com]

As soon as a Republican is elected president, the government can start taxing leftists for all of the things they're not doing. "Didn't buy any guns this year? That's a taxin'. Not going to NASCAR? That's a taxin'. Not listening to Rush? Oh you better believe that's a taxin'."

[dwer.livejournal.com]

well, they can try. But they'd be committing (again) the fallacy of equivalency.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

It's truly Christmas in July.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Winter Is Coming.

At least here, at the ass of the world.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

I had been meaning to post on this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303918204577444221444859342.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

but it looks like it's a little too late now. But the analysis of what this case and the Arizona one from Monday mean should still be valid.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

This may actually still be true, given the Court's pushback on the commerce clause. I get the feeling that part of the decision will reverberate far longer than the (rather simpler) tax-power analysis.