Short-term vs. Long-Term vs. Historical Reaction to Obamacare Decision

On my way home, I like to listen to the Squirrel Report podcast. It’s usually pretty funny and informative, and I really like the combination of Breda, Jay, Weer’d, and Alan. For their June 28 show, they also had Borepatch on as a guest host. The first hour was dominated by the Obamacare decision. Understandable, since that was perhaps the most dominating story of the day.

Borepatch was making some very cogent arguments on how Chief Justice Roberts used the Obamacare decision to put the Democrats in a bad position. Here’s his blogpost laying out some of his arguments. Not necessarily in the short-term, but in the longer term of when the provisions of Obamacare really start to kick in. In terms of the politics, I think Borepatch is spot-on. I disagree with Borepatch on his seeming admiration of Chief Justice Roberts.

Here’s my issue: when dealing with Supreme Court decisions, you can’t just look at it in the prism of the next year, the next five years, or even the next ten years. Judges, by their training and nature, are loathe to overturn precedent. The heart of the arguments against Obamacare, namely the modern interpretation of the Commerce Clause, has its heart in a 1942 Supreme Court case. If Borepatch’s analysis is correct, then Roberts played a Supreme Court decision for present-day politics, and that absolutely disgusts me.

1 Comment

  1. I don’t know enough about law to know if this was a bone headed decision or not – although the Supremes seem to do this all the time, as in Kelo v. New London.

    The politics seems to favor the Republicans, although we’ll have to see how that plays out. People have steam coming out of their ears which makes me think that there could be a tidal wave coming this November. If people are still steamed a month from now, that will be the tell.

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