Editorials & Other Articles

siligut

(12,272 posts) Sat Jun 30, 2012, 01:30 PM Jun 2012

Why Chief Justice Roberts Dared Not Overturn President Obama’s Healthcare Plan

If you want to renew your faith that things might turn out well for America after all, read this article from John W. Dean, a Justia columnist, and former counsel to the president.

http://verdict.justia.com/2012/06/29/why-chief-justice-roberts-dared-not-overturn-president-obamas-healthcare-plan

Informed people understood that this case was a defining moment for the Roberts Court, as did the Chief Justice. Based on this ruling, if the Roberts Court had overturned this important new law, it would likely have been forever viewed as a Court controlled by conservative partisan political activists, rather than a Court where, in fact, justice could be done.

-snip-

Yale Law Professor Akhil Reed Amar told Bloomberg BNA that the early landmark holding of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), upholding the power of Congress to incorporate a national bank, was clear authority for Obamacare. Professor Amar, who says that there are a host of Commerce Clause rulings to provide authority for the Court to uphold the healthcare law, told Ezra Klein before the ruling, “If they decide [to overturn] this by 5-4, then yes, it’s disheartening to me, because my life was a fraud. Here I was, in my silly little office, thinking law mattered, and it really didn’t. What mattered was politics, money, party, and party loyalty.” While Akhil Amar may not be cheering Chief Justice Roberts’s position on the Commerce Clause, the fact that Roberts relied on McCulloch v. Maryland to frame his ruling cannot be too disheartening for Amar.

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Why Chief Justice Roberts Dared Not Overturn President Obama’s Healthcare Plan (Original Post) siligut Jun 2012 OP

I thought it was cuz "Obama threatened his family". louis-t Jun 2012 #1

I've often thought this. Igel Jun 2012 #2

Akhil Amar was on Chris Hayes' show Saturday morning. Manifestor_of_Light Jul 2012 #3

louis-t

(23,297 posts)

1. I thought it was cuz "Obama threatened his family".

Reply to siligut (Original post)

Sat Jun 30, 2012, 02:42 PM

Jun 2012

Igel

(35,362 posts)

2. I've often thought this.

Reply to siligut (Original post)

Sat Jun 30, 2012, 04:06 PM

Jun 2012

If people don't agree with me on a subject, it can only be because they're pigheaded. No difference in interpretation or opinion can be decided, no chance I could be wrong because there's reality (which is what I perceive) and then there's unfounded, baseless bias (which is everybody who doesn't agree with me).

I truly empathize with Amar: His way or no way, he's right and everybody else falls into line or they're idiots or, worse, just evil. And since in the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is probably violating the law and subject to having his one good eye put out as soon as he's caught, he'd better scram.

BTW, they disagreed with Amar in the terms laid out by Amar himself. So by his own admission, his life was a fraud. Or he was wrong, which he also ruled out. Given his egregious error, I'd expect his resignation on the dean's desk first thing Monday morning. (It takes more than a day to write a proper letter of resignation.)

Manifestor_of_Light

(21,046 posts)

3. Akhil Amar was on Chris Hayes' show Saturday morning.

Reply to siligut (Original post)

Sun Jul 1, 2012, 01:38 AM

Jul 2012

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