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Brett Kavanaugh Said Obamacare Was Unprecedented And Unlawful
The Federalist ^ | JULY 3, 2018 | Justin Walker

Posted on 07/06/2018 9:47:11 PM PDT by familyop

Brett Kavanaugh has by far the strongest, most consistent, most fearless record of constitutional conservatism of any federal court of appeals judge in the country.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh should be the next Supreme Court justice. He has by far the strongest, most consistent, most fearless record of constitutional conservatism of any federal court of appeals judge in the country.

Over 12 years and 300 opinions, he has repeatedly fought for principles of textualism and originalism, reined in regulatory overreach, and ensured that administrative bureaucrats are accountable to the elected president. Nominating Kavanaugh would continue President Trump’s exemplary record of selecting the best-qualified person for the Supreme Court, as he did with his brilliant choice of Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Unfortunately, being the clear best choice has downsides, including inviting unfair attacks. One came Monday in a lengthy article by Christopher Jacobs claiming that Kavanaugh “wrote a roadmap for saving Obamacare.” That is nonsense, and conservatives should not be misled into thinking otherwise.

In 2011, two judges on the D.C. Circuit upheld the Obamacare individual mandate under the Commerce Clause. Kavanaugh dissented from that decision, which was authored by the respected Judge Laurence Silberman, a Reagan appointee. Kavanaugh explained that Obamacare could be challenged as unconstitutional, but that a federal jurisdictional statute required such a challenge to be brought in the future.

Critically, and almost entirely absent from Jacobs’ account of the decision, Kavanaugh then called the individual mandate “a law that is unprecedented on the federal level in American history” and observed that upholding the individual mandate would be a “a jarring prospect” that would “usher in a significant expansion of congressional authority with no obvious principled limit.” The government’s argument for the mandate, Kavanaugh continued, would “ultimately extend as well to mandatory purchases of” many other products, a result that would have “extraordinary ramifications.”

Kavanaugh’s thorough and principled takedown of the mandate was indeed a roadmap for the Supreme Court—the Supreme Court dissenters, justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito, who explained that the mandate violated the Constitution. I am very familiar with that opinion, because I served as Kennedy’s law clerk that term. I can tell you with certainty that the only justices following a roadmap from Brett Kavanaugh were the ones who said Obamacare was unconstitutional.

Kavanaugh was equally critical of the individual mandate under the weak Taxing Clause argument advanced by the government and catastrophically accepted by the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh explained that “no court to reach the merits has accepted the Government’s Taxing clause argument,” thereby showing his agreement with all the courts of appeals that correctly found the mandate unsustainable under that clause.

The Taxing Clause, he continued, “has not traditionally authorized a legal prohibition or mandate,” which Obamacare plainly contained. Contrary to Jacobs’ revisionist history, Kavanaugh’s Taxing Clause discussion is thus the opposite of a roadmap to upholding the statute under the Taxing Clause, as the Supreme Court ultimately did in its indefensible decision. Rather, Kavanaugh’s dismissal of the Taxing Clause argument is a roadmap to the conclusion reached by the dissenters—that the individual mandate is unconstitutional under the Taxing Clause.

To be sure, Kavanaugh suggested that a different statute without a mandate might pass muster under the Taxing Clause. But a statute without the mandate would not be Obamacare; it would be an entirely different law. Kavanaugh’s hypothetical discussion of a different statute without a mandate could not be a roadmap to upholding the statute with the mandate that was actually before the court.

A final point: Kavanaugh explained that waiting to resolve the challenge to Obamacare was not only required by law, but also the wise and judicially restrained course. There might never be a need to address the constitutionality of the mandate, he explained, because a future president (after the 2012 election) might choose not to enforce it. That suggestion triggered a furious response from liberal commentator Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker.

Moreover, Kavanaugh warned that rushing to resolve the constitutionality of Obamacare in 2012, rather than respecting the statutory limitations on the court’s authority, could result in an error in judgment. Kavanaugh was right.

Six years later, with the individual mandate finally coming off the books thanks to President Trump, the stakes of this nomination could not be higher. Fortunately, the president’s selection of Gorsuch shows that he knows what to do.

Kavanaugh is by far the strongest choice for the job. His courageous and influential opinions on countless different issues—presidential power, regulatory overreach, religious liberty, the Second Amendment, and the list goes on—leave no doubt that he would be a forceful conservative justice for decades to come. Conservatives should not be misled by misinformation. Judge Brett Kavanaugh has the principles, the record, and the backbone that we need on the Supreme Court.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aca; kavanaugh; obamacare; scotus; taxes; trump; trumpscotus
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1 posted on 07/06/2018 9:47:11 PM PDT by familyop
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To: familyop

How is he on the borders?


2 posted on 07/06/2018 9:48:20 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Democracy: The cliff's edge of Marxism)
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To: familyop

He is right. Obamacare WAS unlawful. Chief Justice Roberts sold his judicial soul and pulled law out of his ass when he upheld it. It should have been a 5-4 decision tossing Obamacare out as unconstitutional. We were all shocked here that Roberts was the swing vote making this unlawful law the law of the land.


3 posted on 07/06/2018 9:50:31 PM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (End the Mueller Gestapo now. Free the Donald.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
‘America First’ SCOTUS Choice: Judge Brett Kavanaugh Applies Trump’s Economic Patriotism to the Law
(details on Kavanaugh's anti-illegal-immigration decisions behind the Brietbart link)
Brietbart
by John Binder
4 Jul 2018
"Judge Brett Kavanaugh, in the running to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, appears to share President Trump’s views on immigration and protecting the American worker."


Brett Kavanaugh: Trump’s Double Down SCOTUS Pick [Kavanaugh's decisions against illegal immigration]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3668818/posts

Meet Trump’s Candidates for Upcoming Supreme Court Vacancy
NTD
By Ivan PentchoukovJUNE 29, 2018
"Barrett is a mother of seven children, including a special needs child and two children adopted from Haiti."


4 posted on 07/06/2018 9:50:43 PM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
And on the Second Amendment,...

Empirical SCOTUS blog sees Brett Kavanaugh as likely SCOTUS nominee
ABA Journal, American Bar Association ^ | December 12, 2017 | Debra Cassens Weiss
Kavanaugh would be attractive to conservatives because of positions he took on two hot-button issues: gun rights and abortion. Kavanaugh dissented when the appeals court rejected a challenge to a Washington, D.C., ban on assault weapons enacted after the Supreme Court found an individual right to own guns under the Second Amendment. Kavanaugh also dissented when the full D.C. Circuit required the U.S. government to allow an abortion for a 17-year-old immigrant who was being held in a shelter because she is in the country illegally.

(Excerpt) Read more at abajournal.com ...


5 posted on 07/06/2018 9:51:45 PM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: familyop
Gee whiz, give it up on Kavenaugh. He lied for the Clintons in a death case! How does that make him fit for the Supreme Court? Ever? No matter what the hell hes done since?

From http://www.fbicover-up.com/miguel-rodriguez.html

The conclusion that Vincent Foster committed suicide depends on yet another provable lie – that Foster drove his children's gray Honda to Fort Marcy Park.

Patrick Knowlton and all the other witnesses were correct. There was no gray car in the parking lot.

We just heard Kavanaugh admit that all witnesses were consistent that the car was brown, proving that Foster did not drive his children's car to the park.

Earlier in this audio, we heard Kavanaugh admit that the civilian witnesses reported seeing a brown car, and claimed to believe that all these civilians were all simply mistaken, or, "screwed up."

But twenty-four officials arrived at the park that night, and Kavanaugh admits that these twenty-four police and medical personnel all saw a brown car.

Brett Kavanaugh

Ah, all the police and medical personnel that were in the park also described it as brown.

Narrator

Kavanaugh learned of this evidence, disproving the suicide theory, from grand jury testimony. Yet, Kavanaugh knowingly withheld this evidence from Starr's Report on Foster's death, and submitted the Report to the United States Court of Appeals, to the Special Division for the Purpose of Appointing Independent Counsels.

Did Kenneth Starr knowingly allow John Bates and Brett Kavanaugh to submit a fraudulent Report to the United States Court of Appeals?

Kavanaugh was willing to do what Miquel Rodriguez was not willing to do: To lie. Kavanaugh's lie that Vincent Foster drove to the park and killed himself was made to perpetuate the cover-up of the murder.

Brett Kavanaugh and John Bates were among those young, aspiring, people, about whom Miquel Rodriguez said, "will do what is necessary to move up the ladder." And move up the ladder they have. John Bates is now a federal district court judge in Washington DC and Brett Kavanaugh serves as an official in the White House. President Bush recently nominated Kavanaugh to be a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

6 posted on 07/06/2018 9:53:24 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: familyop
This is all so damned STUPID!

Everyone and his brother are crawling out of the woodwork to shill for their own "pet" and claiming that it's true/the BEST ever since sliced bread.

We should all just wait to see who gets the nod on Monday!

7 posted on 07/06/2018 9:56:11 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: Yaelle
Hmmmm...thanks for that info!

He didn't appeal to me before knowing that, now...he's a non-starter!

8 posted on 07/06/2018 9:58:05 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free

Yes, and I can see the weasel Justice Roberts doing the same thing (its easier for his ego than admitting that he was WRONG the first time) when the current challenges to Obamacare come to the court ... we need Kennedy’s seat, PLUS one of the leftist-held seats to have a rock-ribbed conservative majority on SCOTUS ....


9 posted on 07/06/2018 9:58:24 PM PDT by Simon Foxx
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Ann Coulter is singing his praises so he must be good


10 posted on 07/06/2018 10:01:40 PM PDT by Electric Graffiti (Jeff Sessions IS the insurance policy)
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To: familyop
You've spammed 4 threads on him just this evening. You and Karl Rove sure are selling hard. 🤔
11 posted on 07/06/2018 10:03:26 PM PDT by proust ("The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today.")
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To: Yaelle

bkmrk


12 posted on 07/06/2018 10:03:31 PM PDT by morphing libertarian ( Build Kate's Wall)
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free

I wasn’t surprised about Roberts, because I didn’t find a substantial court record from Roberts in regards to issues that are important to us. Many of us are fed up with seeing confirmations of mystery justices who turn out to be lefties.

Kavanaugh Allies Muster ‘Army’ of Lawyers to Back Potential SCOTUS Pick
https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2018/07/02/kavanaugh-allies-muster-army-of-lawyers-to-back-potential-scotus-pick/?slreturn=20180607005921


13 posted on 07/06/2018 10:04:48 PM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: familyop

He will now be ‘Broked’ if nominated. Demoncrats lie and deceive. It is their nature inherited from their father, the father of lies a murderer from the start


14 posted on 07/06/2018 10:08:06 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: familyop

They’re all RINOs, EXCEPT for the one that I support.

As to who I support, I’m still working on it.


15 posted on 07/06/2018 10:27:56 PM PDT by BobL (I drive a pick up truck because it makes me feel like a man)
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free

All that was required was the express package of nice glossy prints of a nakiand much younger Roberts doing it with another guy.The only


16 posted on 07/06/2018 10:31:45 PM PDT by robowombat (Orthodox)
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To: Yaelle

you’re the one who needs to give it up with this Foster was killed Alex Jones type bullshit.


17 posted on 07/06/2018 10:36:48 PM PDT by snarkytart
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To: MHGinTN

what is Broked?


18 posted on 07/06/2018 10:37:29 PM PDT by snarkytart
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To: familyop

Horse feces.


19 posted on 07/06/2018 10:44:35 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Democracy: The cliff's edge of Marxism)
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To: snarkytart

Swap the “R” and the “O” ... BORKED. ... Tired old fingers


20 posted on 07/06/2018 10:58:11 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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