Posted on 06/28/2012 12:15:09 PM PDT by Lorianne
The chief justice’s canny move to uphold the Affordable Care Act while gutting the Commerce Clause.
The scholars expected to see the court gut existing Commerce Clause ...
Roberts was smarter than that. By ruling that the individual mandate was permissible as a tax, he joined the Democratic appointees to uphold the law—while joining the Republican wing to gut the Commerce Clause (and push back against the necessary-and-proper clause as well). Here's the Chief Justice's opinion (italics in original):
Construing the Commerce Clause to permit Congress to regulate individuals precisely because they are doing nothing would open a new and potentially vast domain to congressional authority. Congress already possesses expansive power to regulate what people do. Upholding the Affordable Care Act under the Commerce Clause would give Congress the same license to regulate what people do not do. The Framers knew the difference between doing something and doing nothing. They gave Congress the power to regulate commerce, not to compel it. Ignoring that distinction would undermine the principle that the Federal Government is a government of limited and enumerated powers. The individual mandate thus cannot be sustained under Congress’s power to “regulate Commerce.”
The business about "new and potentially vast" authority is a fig leaf. This is a substantial rollback of Congress' regulatory powers, and the chief justice knows it. It is what Roberts has been pursuing ever since he signed up with the Federalist Society. In 2005, Sen. Barack Obama spoke in opposition to Roberts' nomination, saying he did not trust his political philosophy on tough questions such as "whether the Commerce Clause empowers Congress to speak on those issues of broad national concern that may be only tangentially related to what is easily defined as interstate commerce." Today, Roberts did what Obama predicted he would do.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
The Federalist Society should toss Roberts out on his ass!
The media won the war. First they call it the Affordable care Act....Who doesn’t love that name? Secondly, people have ZERO clue what Obamacare is....This is what they think it means: I am hearing people say that Obamacare is letting your children stay on your insurance until 27, letting you continuing having insurance if you get a pre-exsisting condition and let’s you stay on the insurance even if you get sick and cannot drop you. People SERIOUSLY believe this is what Obamacare is all about. This is why many people don’t mind Obamacare and the Conservatives are losing the battle pretty much in the eye of the public. We need to change the message and unfortunately we have an extremely liberal candidate in Romney who feels today is the best day in the history of the Republic...He won’t admit it but he is the reason Obamacare is even in existance...He started it with Romneycare. He is playing politics today but deep down he is proud as can be.
Roberts said it. His job is not to protect us from our elected officials. Vote ‘em out. Insist upon repeal. Get a majority, and then Senate rules be damned.
This is suppose to make me happy? If they wanted to limit the commerce clause strike down this terrible act AND overturn all the nonsense hung out on it.
Don’t forget, this monster was “deemed to pass” in the House.
Who cares about the commerce clause when you can get socialism in this way?
And he inspires the Te Party to turn out for Romney. Obama wins the battle, and the Conservatives win the election and HC overturn.
Brilliant payback to the man who tried to shame him at the State of the Union.
“Roberts said it. His job is not to protect us from our elected officials. Vote ‘em out. Insist upon repeal. Get a majority, and then Senate rules be damned.”
Obama will get his majority from illegals and other freeloaders and they will just tax you.
You and I are in agreement.
How is that in any way a good thing?
I spit on Robert’s and he no longer exists to me.I am changing my party today to independent.
Sorry I’m not feelin the love.
Yep, the young people who will be paying the obamacaretax are the ones who voted him in.
They, being young people- and our media being dishonest- are celebrating this ruling... for now.
I guess us old people should be glad that Medicare will get new funding from this tax on young and healthy people for us, but it is so cruel to treat the young this way.
Roberts, simply put, did not do his damn job! It is bad enough the other 4 on the court did not do theirs but that was expected. Roberts was supposed to be better than what we got today.
This ruling was not some kind of game like chess as so many have been asserting. It was a black-white issue. Yes or no. Up or down. And Roberts and the other 4 justices failed to do what they have been hired to do.
We no longer have people working for us in Washington in any branch of government. We are now their slaves.
No, his job is to uphold the Constitution....AND HE FAILED!
By young people you mean people 26 years old & up. Because under this LAW parents are supposed to cover their ‘children’ up to 26.
It's pissing me off reading it over and over.
If we have a Chief Justice making a fool's gamble that impacts 300+ million people, and uncounted millions more in the future, he's needs his filthy arse impeached.
Because he took the court out of it and gave it back to the people.
Now it is up to us to vote in the right people.
People need to stop with the rationalizations and look at reality. It is what it is.
BFD, he legitimized this monstrosity and invited future governmental incurstions by upholding it under the Necessary and Proper Clause. Remember, he discussed the importance of precedence in his confirmation hearings. He's just set it.....and badly.
Attempting to explain this away by suggesting Roberts is giving us a wink and a nod, allowing us to save ourselves in November is being too clever by way more than half.
Roberts ruled differently than Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and Kennedy. That’s all I need to know. He did nothing but further hurt our country today.
It took an hour or two for the “spin” to start flying to try to quell the dissent, but it’s in full force now.
bflr
On the contrary, he reaffirmed the manner in which Congress can tax us. He removed the veil of fraud that allowed the Commerce Clause to be used to tax us to death. The GOP had a strong majority in the House for 12 years. They squandered it by being over the top liberal in their spending and eventually collapsed into the hands of Pelosi and the wild left.
Roberts basically put it back on We the People to kill this monstrosity. He took away the Left’s use of Commerce to do it. The monster was born of politics and will live or die from politics. Do We the People have the will to kill it?
By the way, old man Stephens is long gone. Alas, not so old man Breyer lives to destroy us yet again.
And Roberts is right...if you don't like the asshole in congress vote them out....
He could’ve thrown the entire POS out AND gutted the commerce clause. With Roberts the votes were there.
The average “American Idol” watching American isn’t going to care about whether it’s a tax or not, all they know today is that the SCOTUS ruled ObamaCare constitutional, then they will go back to watching American Idol or whatever dreck they watch on TV these days.
“Roberts basically put it back on We the People to kill this monstrosity. “
You mean ‘We the People of Mexico’ after that Arizona ruling.
So many idiots trying to crawl through their own bunghole to contort this expansion of federal tax power into something more palatable.
If (in)justice roberts were half the genius they are pretending him to be, he would not have handed that room temperature IQ bunch of moral degenerates in congress unlimited power under any circumstances.
It happens every time one of our representatives stabs conservatives in the back.
Their motives are obvious and my heart goes out to the optimists who buy the line.
Some few rich parents may choose to pay extra to cover children up to 26.
Most 18 to 26’s will pay the tax (granted, they may get the money to do so from their parents, but that’s less money their parents can give them for partying, rent, drugs, or whatever).
Thanks kids! (No, seriously, I do feel bad for them.)
Sounds like a Faustian bargain to me. Clobber the Commerce Clause on the nose and tell it to go no further, but at the same time open up the door for any cockamamie tax Uncle Sam can think of? A tax for not having insulated windows? A tax for drinking Big Gulps?
It could be hoped that when THIS is pushed back before the USSC, Roberts will then agree, this is a bad tax. Like it took more than one trip before campaign finance reform died.
Time will tell if the longterm goal of Robert’s decision will hold up. I can understand a little more of where he’s coming from...but will we actually live long enough to see it?
Repealing this POS legislation will take forever..I don’t trust the next adminstration to do it.
Cripes, look how long it takes for a damn vote on contempt charges..
Besides, from a pragmatic point of view, does it matter whether the court uses the Commerce Clause or the taxation clause to justify its expansion of power beyond the Constitution's enumerated powers? The result is the same either way, increasingly unrestricted authority is centralized in the federal government, and ultimately in the president. At this rate, the Taxation Clause will be the new Commerce Clause, and using that clause the government won't even need to prove that their legislation substantially affects interstate commerce...only that the government's power to penalize--I mean tax--is legal. (This will probably not be too hard to do with the SCOTUS redefinition of a penalty into a tax.)
BS, his job is to rule on the constitionality of laws. To me that statement sounded like whiner who did not have the courage to do what was right. To me that is a frightening argument, if we elect leaders that do unconstitutional things, too bad.
Yes.
“How is that in any way a good thing?”
Small consolation but I guess all the Democrats who campaigned
on a no-tax increase for the ‘working class’ but voted for Obumble-
care lied to their constituents. May just be too early to tell just
how this all shakes out. Maybe Roberts helped us in the long run.
Indeed!
It’s incredible seeing the mental gymnastics being performed. This was a full frontal assault in the daylight.
“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.”
- United States Declaration of Independence
a rash decision based on your misunderstanding of what tcook place here. In my (never to be humble) opinion, Roberts did not rule in favor of the law, only that it was not unconstitutional. Laws can be overturned, constitutional or not and this one should be. He did, however, restrict the authority of the legislature under the commerce clause. Obamacare has an unknown future. It is a bad law and should be repealed and this congress and future ones will see their powers somewhat restricted under commerce.
You bring up an interesting point. Congess would be within its rights to levy a $10,000 tax on any abortion. It wouldn't be a fine, it would be a tax.
Maybe, but I won't be thanking him. He's in the same league with Ginsburg now.
What’s the difference? If the federal government can force you to spend every penny you have on, say, green energy products or face a $1M fine, what limits are there now on Congress?
WHO put them in Congress? .... it wasn't Roberts. If folks who respected the Constitution & truly had America's best interests (not their own i.e. re-election for power & goodies) were elected to Congress, Obamacare would not have seen the light of day & we never would have gotten to this point. It isn't Bush's fault or Robert's fault, it is OUR fault for continuing to elect this trash and then putting up with it when we don't like what they are doing.
Everywhere Liberalism is marching towards total victory. Sodomy is becoming the law of the land, the murder of babies is the law of the land, aliens are flooding into our country and increasing their demands, corruption runs riot among politicians with those exposed flatly refusing to resign; electorial fraud is becoming the norm, the transfer of wealth is now acceptable "from each according to his ability to each according to his need!"
The real question is rapidly becoming "Will ordinary political procedures save the Republic?
This is the rationalization of losers. I remember when every stupid thing Karl Rove did was rationalized as deep strategy.
So Roberts upholding the worst and most unconstitutional law since the New Deal is engaged in some deep long-term war.
What the author does not understand is that Roberts extended Congress taxing powers so far that the commerce clause NO LONGER MATTERS. Congress can do whatever it wants under the taxing power now.
Of course!
I'm weary of the spin as well.
His choice was made with an eye on his personal "legacy", not as a result of brilliant jurisprudence.
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