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
JF'n Kerry is THE poster boy for EVERYTHING that is wrong with the federal government.
YOU LIAR!
Kerry has no credibility, so now he’s playing elementary psychology on the supreme court justices. They should have laughed at both of them.
One of the justices should have said, your feelings about us are no relevance to upholding the constitution.
B-A-L-O-N-E-Y!!!
NOT FOLLOWING THE LAWS OF OUR NATION IS WHAT WILL DO DAMAGE TO OUR NATION.
Yeah....circa 1920’s Chicago mob..
Just reading the headline, I thought for a moment that the Dems had issued a bomb threat to SCOTUS.
Sure they do -- the Stalinists among them do.
"How many divisions has the Pope?" Remember that one, from old Uncle Joe?
I'm surprised Skerry let himself get caught repeating it, in a similar situation, and publicly aligning himself with Stalin's school of political science.
no Blumy? look around you.
” “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.” “
Thanks John F’n.....you will piss off the five even more....please keep talking...we need your support : )
Simple. Rats love darkness.
I am not sure it was so implicit a threat.
Uphold Obamacare —> SCOTUS is credible —> Obedience
Strike Obamacare —> SCOTUS is not credible —> Disobedience
This is very interesting to think what Kerry has in mind if people don’t obey the SCOTUS. Just what would they disobey?
Thankyouverymuch! In particular, I wish to thank former President William Jefferson Clinton, who taught me to parse and examine every word uttered by a politician, no matter which side of the aisle they come from.
Again, thankyouverymuch!!!
“Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said the law has been thoroughly vetted.”
Isn’t this the same guy who assured us earlier this month that North Korea has promised to honor its promises?
Well stated, FRiend. Thanks for the reminder.
The United States needs four or five very simple medical reforms, none of which resemble Obamacare at all. The most major item needed is the elimination of lawsuits against hospitals and doctors and with that, the elimination of CYA medicine. Needed are a general fund to compensate victims for actual malpractice costs as well as a non-inbred tribunal to weed out malpractitioners, but the business of suing doctors and hospitals should end.
: )
John Kerry was in Vietnam. He got shot in the butt with some rice over there.
That rice wound was the result of Kerry’s own action that day. A self-inflicted wound.
That's what Tuh-ray-zuh calls her marriage to Sen. Kerry: a self-inflicted wound, hastened by gin-soaked raisins.
He might want to check that. A whole lot of us have pledged to defend the Constitution against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic...
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