Based on my observations of Chief Justice Roberts at his confirmation hearings and listening to him speak at the SCOTUS hearings on Obamacare, he strikes me as a very mature, sober individual with a very disciplined intellect and the ability to wall off emotional distractions from his thought process.
Which is sort of unfortunate. Because, if Roberts were the kind of individual to take the offense so brazenly offered by Obama in his remarks of the last 2 days, he would be incapable of upholding Obama’s giant steaming pile of health care legislation. If there were any hesitation about it in his mind or in Kennedy’s mind, all doubts would be erased by Obama’s offensive remarks.
But I wonder if, on another, primarily intellectual level, Obama’s remarks might still push Roberts and Kennedy past any obstacles to ditching Obamacare. This might occur If they regard Obama’s statements as more than bluster, as attempts to dramatically shift power away from the courts in favor of the executive branch. This may seem an obvious “take-away” from Obama’s remarks and, candidly, he wouldn’t be the first POTUS to try to enhance the power of the presidency at the expense of another branch. But Roberts and Kennedy may look upon the rising tide of Obama’s power grabs, the recess appointments, the promiscuous use of executive orders, the untethered cadre of czars, the statements to simply go around the legislature to get things done. And the Justices may see the issue of the Obamacare decision as more than just a purely intellectual examination of the limits of congressional power under the commerce clause or the proper application of severability to the outcome. They may see their duty, fully within the proper scope of their constitutional role, as further considering the impact of the statute on the balance of power between the tri-partite branches of the federal system. Handing Obama a victory would not only endorse his signature legislative accomplishment and ensure his re-election, but it would also shift enormous power to a vast regulatory apparatus, over vast economic resources and ultimately, the very power over life and death. Seen this way, Obama may unwittingly be giving the SCOTUS just the right nudge to put the final nail in the coffin. G-d, I hope so.
They may see their duty, fully within the proper scope of their constitutional role, as further considering the impact of the statute on the balance of power between the tri-partite branches of the federal system.
_______________________________________________________
Yes, and also I wonder if the SCOTUS may consider just how this rotten sausage was made: by locking one party out; by ignoring the very public opposition to it; and by passing it at midnight on Christmas Eve. Never has there been such deception, payoff and corruption in the passing of a bill that I know of. I hope the judges are concerned with that aspect.