That the decision will be 5-4 for or against the individual mandate looks like a sure thing.
Much has been written about Kennedy and the conservative side of the court.
However, from the liberal side, Justice Stephen Breyer appeared to see the mandate and the market from a completely different point of view. Breyer at one point suggested that everyone automatically becomes a participant in the heatlh-care market as soon as they’re born. Because no human being can escape illness, Breyer said, everyone will at some point require medical services; this includes those who cannot pay or those who lack insurance.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who embraced the same vision of the health-care market, argued that a person’s refusal to buy health insurance is actually a choice to pass on potential health-care costs, and “they’re making the rest of us pay for it.” Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan appeared on board with their fellow Democratic appointees.
Kennedy in particular seemed to soften near the end of the hearing, acknowledging the problem of the millions who are uninsured and pondering out loud about how the government could address that.
So, no reason to celebrate yet.... it could go the other way.
“Breyer at one point suggested that everyone automatically becomes a participant in the heatlh-care market as soon as they’re born. Because no human being can escape illness, Breyer said, everyone will at some point require medical services; this includes those who cannot pay or those who lack insurance.”
Same goes for food, water, transportation (whether driving, walking, riding), furniture (we all need to sit, lay down, put stuff on tables), and a whole host of other things.
Despite Kennedy’s seeming warming to the mandate at the end, he never got an answer to what he and several other Justices repeatedly asked: “Where is the Limitation?” The govt. never answered the question because there it cannot. If the mandate stands, enumerated powers of the govt. is destroyed completely. There is no way around that. Kennedy knows it as he continued to asked the question, which of course, was never answered.