In Upholding Obamacare’s Subsidies, Justice Roberts Rewrites the Law—Again

Reason ^ | June 25, 2015 | Peter Suderman

[reaganaut1]

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has rewritten the law to save Obamacare—again.

Roberts’ majority opinion today in King v. Burwell, which ruled that the Obama administration’s decision to allow health insurance subsidies flow through the law’s federal exchanges, leaves no doubt that Roberts considers it his duty to keep the law afloat.

"Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them," he writes. "If at all possible, we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter."

And so Roberts decided that a law which explicitly and repeatedly states that subsidies are limited to exchanges "established by a State," and which defines "State" as one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia, actually allows subsidies in exchanges established by a State or the federal government. Roberts’ decision does not interpret Obamacare; it adds to it and reworks it, and in the process transforms it into something that it is not.

Roberts has not merely tweaked the law; he has rewritten it to mean the opposite of what it clearly means. Why include the phrase "established by a State under Section 1311"—the section dealing with state-based exchanges—except to limit the subsidies to those particular exchanges? Roberts’ opinion reconceptualizes this limiting language as inclusive.

The Chief Justice frames his decision as a form of respectful deference to congressional intent. As my colleague Damon Root noted earlier, his opinion cautions that in "every case we must respect the role of the Legislature, and take care not to undo what it has done. A fair reading of legislation demands a fair understanding of the legislative plan."

[Swordmaker]

Just wait until the Tax/Fine hits thousands of dollars and eats up people tax refund ,LOL

The Tax/Fine is already IN Obama/SCOTUS Care in the form of extremely high monthly premiums and co-pays which are no where near what we were paying before the fine hand of the government busybodies disrupted the free market of the health insurance systems in place already to purportedly fix a small problem they PERCEIVED needed fixing.

They FUBARed it. . . whether it was intentional or not. . . it is up to us to force a fix before they bankrupt us.

[roses of sharon]

Why didn't they care when the passage of Obamacare stole millions of insurance plans from Americans?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

We need to keep voting Republican because of judges! (S)

[griswold3]

‘The SCOTUS has essentially rewritten a new law under the urging of the POTUS — the two branches of the government who AREN’T supposed to be able to pass laws have combined to effectively do so.’

[mtrott]

So, will somebody tell me again why we even bother having Congressional elections? Why we have Congress actually meet, and draft laws? How do we get rid of these idiots on the SC, who obviously have contempt for our Constitution and the separation of powers?

[cld51860]

The SCOTUS lunchroom must be a very quietly uncomfortable place to be right now...

[Diamond]

Scalia eviscerates the majority opinion;

SCALIA, J., dissenting

...Having transformed two major parts of the law, the Court today has turned its attention to a third. The Act that Congress passed makes tax credits available only on an “Exchange established by the State.” This Court, however, concludes that this limi- tation would prevent the rest of the Act from working as well as hoped. So it rewrites the law to make tax credits available everywhere. We should start calling this law SCOTUScare.

Perhaps the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will attain the enduring status of the Social Security Act or the Taft-Hartley Act; perhaps not. But this Court’s two decisions on the Act will surely be remembered through the years. The somersaults of statutory interpretation they have performed (“penalty” means tax, “further [Medi- caid] payments to the State” means only incremental Medicaid payments to the State, “established by the State” means not established by the State) will be cited by liti- gants endlessly, to the confusion of honest jurisprudence. And the cases will publish forever the discouraging truth that the Supreme Court of the United States favors some laws over others, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to uphold and assist its favorites.

[hal ogen]

It is quite shocking that the Chief Justice, roberts, doesn’t understand how the court is supposed to Constitutionally operate. What a toady loser. May Justice find him.

[dennisw]

My take is Justice Roberts was initially blackmailed over his + wife’s illegal adoption of two Irish children. Ireland does not allow foreigners to come in and adopt Irish children and spirit them way back to America. So the Roberts family had the two children sent to a Latin American nation. The Roberts adopted via that Latin American nation

But now I think he has internalized being an Obama stooge and doesn’t need to be blackmailed anymore.

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More details here>>
It is now quite evident that the two Children were from Ireland. Even wikipedia references these adoptions at the time of Roberts’ confirmation, and indicates that the children were of Irish birth.

However Irish law 1) prohibits the adoption of Children to non-residents, and 2) also does not permit private adoptions, but rather has all adoptions go through a public agency.

Evidently Roberts arranged for this adoption through some sort of trafficking agency, that got the children out of Ireland and into that Latin American country, from which they were adopted, thereby circumventing two Irish laws — entirely illegal, but perhaps quasi-legitimized by the birth mothers (two) transporting the children out of Ireland.

Undoubtedly Roberts and his wife spent a great deal of money for this illegal process, circumventing Irish laws and arranging for the transit of two Irish children from separate birth-mothers to a foreign nation. Come 2012, those two children have been with the Roberts’ for roughly 10 years, since they were adopted as “infants”. - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/tea-party-nation-wonders-if-john-roberts-was-blackmailed-uphold-health-care-reform#sthash.bpZxi85E.dpuf

[anymouse]

Gymnastics implies the skilful manipulation of physics (law.)
What SCOTUS did was like the “Matrix” fighting, completely ignoring physics (law) and making it up as you go.
Lawlessness.
Justice Roberts, you are no Neo.

[generally]

If congressional intent is the standard, then I should be allowed to have nuclear weapons, cannons, rocket launchers, and anything else I want to defend myself, as per the intent of the 2d amendment.

[generally]

Along with Ginsberg, Sotomayor, Kagan.