When many of us were covering the decision from the Supreme Court, one thing that was immediately noted was the the decision of Associate Justice Anton Scalia read like a majority opinion. The opinion not only referred to “the dissent” as if it were the majority opinion (though sometimes justices even in dissent can refer to other dissents). Reports are now indicating that Chief Justice John Roberts initially sided with the Supreme Court’s four conservative justices to strike down the Affordable Care Act. The report is a serious breach in the normally secretive court in its internal deliberations and contains considerable detail showing a hard effort by the Court’s swing justice Anthony Kennedy to convince Kennedy to return to the fold. The report is likely to increase the feeling of betrayal by those who felt that opinion harmed federalism by reaffirming the taxing power as an easy avenue to circumvent state rights. That was the subject of my column the day after the ruling.
The conservatives responded to the defection by refusing to sign on to any part of the Roberts decision, even though they were in agreement on some parts.
The reports say that Roberts initially voted in conference with the conservatives – giving himself as the most senior justice on that side the presumptive majority opinion. Roberts was generally viewed as a lock for the conservatives as opposed to the more moderate Kennedy.
As I said in my USA Today column, I credit Roberts to ruling as he believed was correct — regardless of the backlash or popularity. I simply do not see the consistent line of principle in the rationales.
I have previously expressed my disagreement with the Roberts opinion on federalism grounds. This will certainly be one of his most famous opinions, but I would not call it one of his best. The opinion seems to me to be hopelessly conflicted and inconsistent. After denouncing the use of the Commerce Clause to justify the law as a claim without a limiting principle, he embraced a view of the tax authority that sweeping and potentially limitless under this “functional approach.” He expressly states that tax authority can be used to simply influence decisions of citizens.
Moreover, I do not get the widespread view that this opinion showed Roberts breaking away from the rigid 5-4 split of the Court saving its credibility. This was a 5–4 decision that was heavily splintered. This is the only time that Roberts has joined a 5-4 decision on the side of the liberal justices. I do not see how this is such a roaring victory for collegiality or unity. What I do see is another example of why we need to expand this Court. As expected it can down to one justice — in this case a justice who literally flipped the result in the final stretch of the deliberations. With only 9 nines, individual concurrences can undermine the clarity or meaning of such a decision. The reason I wrote the earlier column (and a longer piece) on the expansion proposal in the Post — the follow up column in the Guardian — was because the momentous decisions this week shows the dangers of this concentration of power — a concentration that other leading nations avoid. I would have felt the same way if the result were flipped — as many of us expected.
With a larger court, it is certainly possible to have a 9-8 split (many people missed the fact that I proposed a 19 member Court in the hopes of returning to two justices serving by designation each year on lower courts). However, the experience with both appellate courts sitting en banc and foreign high courts show that these alliances are more fluid and less predicable. I am scheduled to discuss this proposal on NPR’s Talk of the Nation today.
Source: CBS
Is it possible that Roberts was looking at more than the ACA?
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/why-right-has-new-legal-ammunition-its-quest-end-medicare-social-security-and-our?akid=9193.259653._Tw3Aw&rd=1&src=newsletter690298&t=13&paging=off
Why the Right Has New Legal Ammunition in Its Quest to End Medicare, Social Security and Our Entire Social Safety Net
When he declared the healthcare mandate constitutional, the chief justice set up an argument for taking down the social safety net. Now right-wingers are coming for it all.
Excerpt:
In the case decided by the Supreme Court in June, the right-wingers who brought the case argued that the individual mandate was unconstitutional. Having failed in that claim, conservatives are now arguing that unless the subsidies are administered by exchanges created by the states, they are forbidden by the language of the ACA. If the federal government comes in and sets up an exchange because a recalcitrant state refuses to participate, those exchanges, Adler and Cannon argue, cannot offer subsidies for insurance coverage — leaving no means of affordable coverage in most of the red states for those who need it most.
Should such an argument pass muster before the court, people lacking means would be stuck with a penalty and no healthcare coverage, increasing support for a repeal of the law.
But it doesn’t end with healthcare reform. If the court should ultimately rule that states have the power to challenge federal subsidies for health care in this fashion, it opens the door to similar challenges in other cooperatively run programs such as family planning assistance, special education, affordable housing, and nearly every bit of social welfare legislation that is grounded in a partnership where states administer federal dollars.
Reblogged this on Clantily Scad: Dyslexistentialist Commentary of the Culturally Incorrect Kind and commented:
Well, shit titties. Money quote: “This will certainly be one of his most famous opinions, but I would not call it one of his best. The opinion seems to me to be hopelessly conflicted and inconsistent.”
Pete and HenMan,
Hilarious!
pete-
Or maybe Chief Justice Roberts found out who put the pubic hair on his Coke can.