XZ, it is not the position of Kennedy that I worry about. It’s Chief Justice Roberts.
Ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby effectively kills Obamacare because of the intentional refusal to put a severance clause in the law. Ergo, I fear another taffy twisting effort at bizarre logic from Roberts to keep Obamacare alive. In that case, Hobby Lobby is screwed.
I know we’re not supposed to guess what a Scotus does, but I think they will decide based on overriding government interest. They’ll say many exceptions have been granted, this one is just one more.
That kicks the can down the road to the time when all the exceptions have ended and the government can again say they have an overriding concern.
Meanwhile, the only real legal challenge to ObamaCare is the House origination argument that’s wending its way through the courts.
Now that Obama has shown a president can pick and choose laws to enforce and not enforce, a presidential win by a conservative means he can say, “Not enough money. We’re putting this on the back burner.”
I don’t think the severance issue is what’s at stake here. The rule objected to by Hobby Lobby is not directly in the text of Obamacare. It is a regulatory rule engineered by a federal agency. Team Obama can ill afford to lose the ability to craft whatever demonic law they like at the regulatory layer. It’s really their carte blanch to do all manner of social engineering, and the regulatory layer is, by practice if not by law, well-insulated from the congressional oversight it should receive. If Obama wins this, he can run things more autonomously than ever, via the Administrative State. It strengthens his dictatorial powers while at the same time reengineering the family into a leftist model of total subservience to the will of the state.
I still can’t believe that Roberts sold out the American people for whatever reason.
Even if it was blackmail regarding his children, would he sacrifice the whole country, freedom for his children to avoid some personal consequences?