Posted on 03/29/2012 1:50:01 PM PDT by Sybeck1
A handful of Senate Democrats sought to assure doubtful liberals that the Supreme Court justices aren’t ready to strike down their crowning achievement, standing before cameras and mics Wednesday in front of the court. One warned that doing so would ruin the court’s credibility.
“This court would not only have to stretch, it would have to abandon and completely overrule a lot of modern precedent, which would do grave damage to this court, in its credibility and power,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D), a former attorney general of Connecticut. “The court commands no armies, it has no money; it depends for its power on its credibility. The only reason people obey it is because it has that credibility. And the court risks grave damage if it strikes down a statute of this magnitude and importance, and stretches so dramatically and drastically to do it.”
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said the law has been thoroughly vetted.
“As a senior member of the Finance Committee,” he said, “I can tell you that we had one of the most rigorous and transparent legislative processes that I have witnessed in almost 3 decades here in the Congress. We worked with some of the brightest, most thoughtful and experienced constitutional lawyers in order to make sure that the law was constitutional.”
Kerry said the assumptions that tough questions from the justices will amount to striking down some or all of the Affordable Care Act are a fallacy — he predicted, as the final oral arguments were transpiring inside, that it would be upheld.
“Now I am glad — as I think any of us who’ve practiced law are — to see the intense questions from the justices. They’re engaged, and they are thoughtfully working through these issues,” Kerry said. “But questions are a legitimate way of probing the basis of their own thinking. They are not an indication of a judgment made, or a vote ready to be cast. They’re working through this process as they ought to, mindful of the fact that 30 courts below them have already made a judgment upholding it.”
Blumenthal and Kerry — who were joined by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) — called the press conference one day after liberals and other court watchers expressed serious doubts that the justices would uphold the Affordable Care Act’s requirement to purchase insurance, a central pillar of the law. The firestorm was ignited by legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who called Tuesday’s arguments a “train wreck” for the White House and predicted that “Obamacare” would be struck down.
Pushing back, Blumenthal said that there’s a “heavy burden” on the challengers.
“Everybody learns in the first year of law school that the law that’s challenged is presumed to be constitutional,” Blumenthal said. “That is a heavy burden for anyone challenging the constitutionality of a law to overcome. When in doubt, uphold the law. There is a lot of room for doubt here, and there is a lot of clear precedent that requires this court to uphold this law.”
The Democrats’ level of confidence has diminished since the days when they dismissed a constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act as frivolous. Indeed, the tough questioning from swing Justices John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy about the limits of federal power at least rattled liberals enough to require the nerve-soothing press conference. But Democrats are seeking to quell liberal fears that the game is already over.
Experts say it’s too difficult to predict how the court will rule.
Affordable Care Act, HCR/SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Republicans got a good chance of picking up a few seats in congress. That has got to be better than now where Republicans can get nothing done but get blamed for controlling congress.
Romney?? Think “See you at the signing”
Maybe. Sometimes the party winning the presidential election gains some seats in congress. But even if the GOP gains seats, that is no guarantee they will stop Obama's spending. But then Romney might spend some money too, who knows.
Some FReepers say that another Obama term is the end of the USA. Maybe not, but it's still a horrible fate.
” Some FReepers say that another Obama term is the end of the USA “
Yes, I am saying this. Or Civil War..one or the other.
Just this past week......
Obama kills oil drilling until 2018
Obama to give amnesty by EO for parents of anchor babies.
Sorry, I meant Republicans will pickup seats in the senate. The House is questionable.
RE :”But even if the GOP gains seats, that is no guarantee they will stop Obama’s spending. But then Romney might spend some money too, who knows.”
guarantee ??? HA-HA. We are talking about a chance, maybe a small one.
RE :”Some FReepers say that another Obama term is the end of the USA. Maybe not, but it's still a horrible fate.”
Through 2008 I was lectured that his first term would spell the end of the USA. Now it's his second term that we are told will be the end, so obviously it hasn't ended yet as the others lectured me.
It reminds me of Al Gore saying it's our last chance to stop global warming. You only have so many real 'last' chances before they run out.
Hold on there. He says he issued more permits than any other POTUS and he fast-tracked the pipeline, Every idea he has implemented he says came from a Republican... he said so. You saying he is lying?
How about those CBO job numbers or Obama-care cost estimates? Not true?
He look so serious when he tells us this. I have to believe him.
My thoughts on the House, not much change. I’d bet on + or - more than 10 seats either way.
This year the minions of The Anointed One will see to it that there will be bloody riots..be prepared..
mittens [like the last of W] is the setup for disaster indeed...SOL has been pretty consistent in reading the political tea leaves, and i believe that this would be our *best* case scenario...
the whole setup of 'lesser of evils' tells me that we are being played to choose our own method of suicide...either way, we die...
the ballot isnt designed to vote 'against' a candidate...ive never found that option in the booth...
i wont vote 'for' bambam or his kissin cousin type statist pol brethren...
if [when] bambam gets his lame duck term, the mask and pressure ratchet up, and *maybe* he oversteps enuff to startle the herd and find the pushback line...
we'll know shortly...
“As a senior member of the Finance Committee,” he said, “I can tell you that we had one of the most rigorous and transparent legislative processes that I have witnessed in almost 3 decades here in the Congress. We worked with some of the brightest, most thoughtful and experienced constitutional lawyers in order to make sure that the law was constitutional.”
Satire, straight from the horse's *ss, with no middle man.
-——Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D), a former attorney general of Connecticut-——
Actually, he is a parody of a Senator, a living joke. He was literally cut to ribbons and rendered speechless by Niel Cavuto.
Blumenthal, you stupid scheisskopf, look up the steel mill case where the SCOTUS over-ruled Truman’s attempt to take over the steel mills due to a strike during time of war (Korean)
It’s been done before!!
And you say you’re an attorney!! You are an embarrassment to MY home state!!
Just crawl back into the hole you came out of!!
bttt
YES
I think you meant +/- *not* more than 10 seats. And I agree with you assessment: redistricting will be a wash in terms of seats switching partisan lean, but it will result in many of the 2010 GOP pickups becoming harder for the RATs to win back. I actually think that +/- 5 is more likely than the odds of either party picking up 10 net seats.
I wish I had something encouraging to say about Romney. If he really is trying to fight his leftist nature, he is having a hell of a hard time convincing me.
When Gingrich decided that he no longer wanted to sit on Pelosi's global warming couch, he said that he had been wrong. When Romney flipped on the same issue, BAM! No admission he was wrong, he just magically flipped 180 degrees. I probably don't have to mention Romney's flips on amnesty and healthcare.
One could say that Romney MIGHT be better than Obama on certain issues, but there is no way to make a POTUS keep his promises, and no way to make RINOs in congress refuse a GOP POTUS. I believe GWB paved the way for Obama, and who knows what kind of monster could follow Romney.
But I won't vote for Obama, and I hope none of you do. He is a traitor who believes
"the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society. And to that extent, as radical as I think people tried to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, as least as it’s been interpreted, and Warren Court interpreted in the same way that, generally, the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf. And that hasn’t shifted."
the threat of revolt only works when the people actually have the will to do so...
that aforementioned line is the *last* line, and will separate the slaves from the FReemen...weve been in a no-mans-land for pretty much my entire life, unable to touch the royalty that has been our *leaders* at every level of gubmint, and basically told to sit down and shut up while our betters gave us what we needed...[SPIT]...
noot greengrinch didnt do anything by his self serving apology, and shouldve been a joke as a candidate from day one...especially if his *strength* is his being the 'smartest guy in the room'...supposedly he was duped by the hoax of globull warming, but yet he can fix every problem known to man with enuff federal regulation...in that situation, i actually have more respect for mittens in his boldness of unapoligetically pandering for votes with his flip-flops...at least hes 'used car salesman' honest enuff to play the game...
no worries on me voting *for* bambam, or anyone else on the natl ticket...if i dont go completely Galt come nov, i will simply write in the only King that I have, namely the Lord Jesus, and trust that His Plan for myself and family is at least an honest path to follow...
any lurkers behind this post, save your breath and KMA, as theres no *against* box to fill on the ballot, so i cant reduce the landslide that bambam is about to achieve by standing on my principles...our opposition party, known as the right wing of the tyranny-o-saurus beast couldve/shouldve acted like it wasnt as much whore as the left...
/rant i reckon...
Yes, I meant NOT more than 10 seats either way. I was gonna say 5 and that’s the likelihood but I think 10 is the limit. If it was a bigger change than that I would be surprised.
My wife already said she won't vote for anybody for POTUS this time. I know where she is coming from.
The grave danger is sodamayor and kagan.
Especially kagen.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.