Free Republic

...Worst of all for the repute of today’s decision, the Court’s reasoning is largely self-defeating. The Court predicts that making tax credits unavailable in States that do not set up their own Exchanges would cause disastrous economic consequences there. If that is so, however, wouldn’t one expect States to react by setting up their own Exchanges? And wouldn’t that outcome satisfy two of the Act’s goals rather than just one: enabling the Act’s reforms to work and promoting state involvement in the Act’s implementation? The Court protests that the very existence of a federal fallback shows that Congress expected that...

Tonight, Reason’s Peter Suderman published an interesting revelation about the history of the decision reached this week by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, that Obamacare subsidies couldn’t be distributed unless it happened through a state exchange. It turns out that one of the key minds behind Obamacare, MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, entirely agreed with Michael Cannon and Jonathan Adler, the scholars behind the legal theory that backed up the Halbig plaintiffs who triumphed this week.  He’s on the record explaining that Obamacare subsidies are limited to state exchanges.  Suderman writes: Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who helped design the Massachusetts health...

Justice Antonin Scalia strongly objected to Thursday's Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act, so it was amusing to see Chief Justice John Roberts use Scalia's own dissent in the last major Obamacare case against him. It was buried in a footnote and amounted to a small dart lobbed Scalia's way, especially when compared to Scalia's blistering dissent that ripped Roberts' legal reasoning. To defend making the subsidies available to consumers everywhere, Roberts cited a line the dissent to the 2012 decision in favor of Obamacare, in which Scalia said, "Without the federal subsidies . . . the exchanges...

Americans trust their doctors, so the White House wants these medical professionals to be a mouthpiece for President Obama’s global warming agenda. “We also need doctors, nurses and citizens, like all of you”President Obama said in a taped speech presented to medical professionals gathered at the White House, “to get to work to raise awareness and organize folks for real change.” The Obama administration has been hard at work trying to draw a link between global warming and public health issues. The summit included the U.S. Surgeon General, top administration officials, and public health experts from around the country telling...

  John Roberts is a liar. Acting as Obama's champion for the second time, The Supreme Court has upheld Obamacare. From the ruling: The argument that the phrase “established by the State” would be superfluous if Congress meant to extend tax credits to both State and Federal Exchanges is unpersuasive. This Court’s “preference for avoiding surplusage constructions is not absolute.” Lamie v. United States Trustee , 540 U. S. 526, 536. And rigorous application of thatcanon does not seem a particularly useful guide to a fair constructionof the Affordable Care Act, which contains more than a few examples of...

“We should just start calling this law SCOTUScare,” Scalia wrote, referring to the several times the high court has ruled on controversial parts of ObamaCare. Scalia blasted that reading. “The court holds that when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act says ‘Exchange established by the State’ it means ‘Exchange established by the State or the Federal Government,’ Scalia wrote. “That is of course quite absurd, and the court’s 21 pages of explanation make it no less so.”

Assuming they can take a break from bitterly clinging to their guns and religion for a few minutes, I’m going to set a bona fide goal for those liberty-loving Americans out there with a passion for our founding principles and the Constitution. What may surprise some in that camp is that it’s the very same goal toward which those on the political left strive. At first blush, some of these patriots – perhaps many – will find this goal rhetorically indelicate, if not undemocratic, or even (dare I say it?) – “extreme.” By the time they’re done reading this, however,...

Backers of the Affordable Care Act were treated to twin delights on Thursday: First, the law was upheld, so nobody will be kicked off their insurance by the Supreme Court. And second, the dissent was written by Justice Antonin Scalia who, when angry (which is always), has a penchant for literary drama. "Words no longer have meaning," Scalia wrote in the dissent he read from the bench. They might not, but that didn't stop Scalia from piling them on top of each other in an angry heap. Here are some of the choicest of his meaningless words. [Snip] "Today's interpretation...

It's official! Even though Gruber plainly said 'If you're a state and you don’t set up an Exchange, that means your citizens don’t get their tax credits. … I hope that’s a blatant enough political reality that states will get their act together and realize there are billions of dollars at stake here in setting up these Exchanges, and that they’ll do it.', our SCOTUS has taken it upon itself to rewrite Obamacare. That's twice now that SCOTUS has rewritten an obviously unconstitutional Law to decide it really is Constitutional. So, mark this day forever, it is OFFICIAL. WORDS in...

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that health insurance consumers can receive federal subsidies regardless of their state’s role in running their insurance market, fewer states may stay in the game.When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, most people expected that each state would want to run its own health insurance marketplace. That never really happened, as many states opted to let the federal system, HealthCare.gov, do the work for them. Many of those states that did try running their own marketplaces are starting to think twice.Now, with the Supreme Court ensuring that every state’s consumers will have...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the nationwide tax subsidies under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, in a ruling that preserves health insurance for millions of Americans. The justices said in a 6-3 ruling that the subsidies that 8.7 million people currently receive to make insurance affordable do not depend on where they live, under the 2010 health care law.< The outcome is the second major victory for Obama in politically charged Supreme Court tests of his most significant domestic achievement. It came the same day the court gave the administration an unexpected victory by preserving...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the nationwide tax subsidies under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, in a ruling that preserves health insurance for millions of Americans. The justices said in a 6-3 ruling that the subsidies that 8.7 million people currently receive to make insurance affordable do not depend on where they live, under the 2010 health care law.

Six are the Chief, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan.

Ted Cruz live on FNC

Our pro-cross dressing President apparently doesn’t think people have DNA that makes them male or female. But he has just told an interviewer that white people and others have DNA that makes them racist and that American institutions are racist, too. These claims are described by our media as “bold” rather than bizarre racial slurs. CNN reported that Obama, during an appearance on a comedy show, said “the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination” exists in institutions and casts “a long shadow and that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on.” The host, comedian Marc Maron, has been a...

CHICAGO (AP) -- Medical marijuana has not been proven to work for many illnesses that state laws have approved it for, according to the first comprehensive analysis of research on its potential benefits. The strongest evidence is for chronic pain and for muscle stiffness in multiple sclerosis, according to the review, which evaluated 79 studies involving more than 6,000 patients. Evidence was weak for many other conditions, including anxiety, sleep disorders, and Tourette's syndrome and the authors recommend more research.

Medical marijuana has not been proven to work for many illnesses that state laws have approved it for, according to the first comprehensive analysis of research on its potential benefits. The strongest evidence is for chronic pain and for muscle stiffness in multiple sclerosis, according to the review, which evaluated 79 studies involving more than 6,000 patients. Evidence was weak for many other conditions, including anxiety, sleep disorders, and Tourette's syndrome and the authors recommend more research.

Peter Singer is in hot water in Germany again over his controversial views.The Australian utilitarian philosopher began his royal progress through Europe well. In late May he added another two honorary doctorates -- from the Universities of Athens and of Bucharest -- to his extensive collection of awards and distinctions. From there he went to Berlin to receive the inaugural “Peter Singer Prize for Strategies to Reduce the Suffering of Animals”. He was introduced in glowing terms by Maneka Gandhi, Indian Minister of Women and Child Development, who is president of People for Animals in her own country. A German...

The ObamaCare consultant who once mocked the “stupidity of the American voter” had a bigger impact on the healthcare law than previously known, The Wall Street Journal is reporting. Jonathan Gruber frequently contacted Obama administration officials via email while crafting ObamaCare, according to the newspaper. The Journal said that previously unreleased messages show that Gruber repeatedly messaged the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) between January, 2009 and March, 2010. He offered advice on healthcare policy and informed officials about media and lawmaker interviews concerning ObamaCare, it added. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) told the newspaper...

Glenn Beck played up the Thursday night “Crossfire” showdown between Sen. Ted Cruz and former Obama green jobs czar Van Jones to tout Cruz as a “brilliant” carrier of the conservative banner – and slam Jones as a “communist revolutionary” hiding behind a shield of respectability.“You’re a communist revolutionary, Van Jones,” Beck said on his show Friday after playing a clip of the Cruz-Jones confrontation. “This is one of the most dangerous men in America.”In the “Crossfire” segment, Jones demanded Cruz, R-Texas, apologize to the Republican Party for the government shutdown in Washington, but Cruz turned the tables with...