Posted by Lambchop

Why Roberts Did it? This will be the question to haunt conservative political thinkers, constitutional purists, and federalists for years to come. This is also the title of Charles Krauthammer's latest analysis of the Supreme Court decision to uphold the individual mandate and the Affordable Care Act.
One of my favorite conservative pundits, Charles Krauthammer, wrote an opinion for The Washington Post yesterday after the Supreme Court verdict upholding Obamacare, with Chief Justice Roberts writing the majority opinion for the court’s decision. Roberts was also the key swing vote.
Krauthammer said that Roberts pulled “off one of the great constitutional finesses of all time”. He argues that Roberts was “appalled” by an extreme view that the Obama administration used to justify the law - the individual mandate should be upheld on the grounds that it is a legitimate use of federal power to regulate commerce.
Krauthammer states that the Supreme Court has been stung by seemingly political and ideological rulings in the recent past (noting a couple of 5-4 votes on ideological lines), and that Roberts viewed himself as the one to change that perception.
The article says that the evidence of finesse of the Robert’s swing/majority opinion is this: the Commerce Clause interpretation remains limited and thus enumerated powers are still in check - a victory of sorts for the conservative. And inthe same vein, labeling the individual mandate a “tax” allows the law to be upheld and “thus prevented the court from being seen as having overturned, presumably on political grounds, the signature legislation of this administration.”
Krauthammer goes on to say that labeling the individual mandate as a tax is “flimsy” and a “dodge”.
Let me get this straight. Roberts is playing some complex political genius holographic form of futurist chess ...while the “less evolved” like Alito, Thomas and Scalia are merely playing kindergarten jumbo Chinese checkers?
This would be a fantastic analysis except for a couple of issues. The REAL results of the ruling are this: 1) The Worst Legislation of All Time is upheld – the same legislation that was pushed through the House and Senate with Democrat majorities based on a lie (“not a tax”) outside of typical procedural rules 2) Congress now has the power to PENALIZE WITHOUT LIMITS WHAT THE INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN DOES NOT DO.3) Roberts had to rewrite the legislation for it hold up - both the Medicaid portion and the justification for the individual mandate.
Secondly , if Roberts (the superhuman Ninja Chief Justice) did indeed singlehandedly save the court's reputation, limited the interpretation of the commerce clause, and cleverly remanded Obamacare back to congress with one brilliantly-crafted opinion – how come we now have a new enumerated unlimited penalizing power given to congress that is incorrectly labeled as a “tax’?
The size of the federal goverment can grow to even more ridiculous proportions and the ability for congress to penalize and tax the citizen has no limit - sounds like a travesty of justice to me.
Read Krauthammer’s Entire Opinion Here: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jun/29/tp-charles-krauthammer-why-roberts-did-it/?page=2#article
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