will side with big Biz. He will uphold the law. I think 5/4 or 6/3 in favor. The Liberals siding with Big Business. Amazing.

Ten minutes after this post goes live, the nine justices will enter the Supreme Courtroom and begin the first of four hearings to decide the fate of the Affordable Care Act. If the justices follow the text of the Constitution, they will have no choice but to uphold the law. Under our founding document, Congress has the power to “regulate commerce . . . among the several states.” This, in the words of the very first Supreme Court decision to interpret these words, includes the “full power” over any “sort of trade” that concerns more than one state. So a law regulating nationwide trade in health care clearly qualifies.

To counter the clear thrust of the Constitution’s text, the law’s opponents argue that Congress has gotten too big for its britches. If Congress has the power to require people to carry health insurance, their argument goes, there will be no limit on it’s authority and any kind of law will qualify as a regulation of commerce. Of course, this is not true — the Supreme Court precedents correctly establish that non-economic laws such as federal murder, rape, assault, truancy or sexual morality laws are beyond Congress’ authority to regulate commerce — but it’s worth noting that the plaintiffs’ argument is not a new one. In fact, it is nearly 100 years old:

The far reaching result of upholding the act cannot be more plainly indicated than by pointing out that if Congress can thus regulate matters entrusted to local authority by prohibition of the movement of commodities in interstate commerce, all freedom of commerce will be at an end, and the power of the States over local matters may be eliminated, and thus our system of government be practically destroyed.