This is a Direct Tax thereby unconstitutional.
The irony is that Roberts was able to get the liberal wing’s amens to this idea of Obamacare-sanction-as-tax.
It is a hellacious situation which calls for near and long term political solutions, including a constitutional amendment. But it seems in the meantime we can at least get the Democrats screaming “Unfair! Unfair!” to the Court by tax-or-else mandating such things as every able bodied man having a militia arm. Or whatever we could persuade Mitt Romney to go along with.
Roberts decision is a Koan. If we meditate on it we will gain enlightenment and see what he sees.
As Freeper rrdog pointed out, this is a tax on capital; because the government can “tax” you for doing nothing, you have to pay the “tax” out of your existing property. It is not in any way a tax on economic activity. I have pointed out that the logical progression of that philosophy brings it into direct conflict with the 5th Amendment Takings Clause; that no person can be deprived of property without due process and “just compensation.” As you pointed out, there is no longer any “due process” involved in the taking. And now, there is also no “just compensation” either.
So, it won’t be long before a clever socialist lawyer realizes that the 5th Amendment has been gutted like a fish, just as the 14th Amendment’s “privileges and immunities” clause was gutted by “The Slaughterhouse Cases” back in the 1880’s. It’s a dead letter; the government can take your property just by calling it a “tax.”
So what’s next? A tax levy on your retirement account. The socialists have been drooling over that pot of money for years. It was only the 5th Amendment Takings Clause that kept their grubby hands off it. Not anymore.
What’s even worse is Roberts and the four libs denied the American people due process on the issue of, assuming this is a tax, whether it is a tax than can be constitutionally enacted.
Congress possesses clear, enumerated authority to enact a direct capitation tax, excise taxes and, due to the 16th Amendment, an income tax. Of those the only vaguely close tax is an excise tax. However, an excuse tax is a tax on some type of activity, like buying liquor, jewelry, or guns, each of which is indirect because the tax is deemed to be on the property or privilege in question, not the individual using the property or privilege. The ObamaCare tax, however, is arguably directly on the individual. That is an issue, just like the commerce clause mandate, that deserved full briefing and argument, a full briefing and argument that the majority denied to the American people by only cursorily considering this fundamental issue. If the Court had wanted to base its decision on this issue, basic due process demanded that it set the issue out as a separate one to be argued.