Supreme Worry: The Fate Of ObamaCare

Writing at The Hill, Juan Williams, the squishy shill for President “Tee-Em-Up” believes, “Every political strategist working the fall elections sees a game changer coming by the end of the month. That’s when the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of President Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act.”

“The Democrats have a nuclear option in this political game if the high court throws out the healthcare law as unconstitutional.”

“That blowup-the-system button, not pushed since FDR’s attempt to stack the court with Democrats during the New Deal, is for Obama to use the bully pulpit of the White House, and the national stage of a presidential campaign, to launch a bitter attack on the current court as a corrupt tool of the Republican right wing.”

“It is a move that could energize Democrats and independents even as Republicans celebrate a major legal victory. Some Democrats, sensing a political windfall, can’t wait to start the offensive.”

By contrast Avik Roy, a contributor at Forbes, provides some insight.

“In her ACS remarks, Ginsburg suggested that she might be on the dissenting side of the case. ‘I have spoken on more than one occasion about the utility of dissenting opinions, noting in particular that they can reach audiences outside the court and can propel legislative or executive change,’ said Ginsburg, in the context of a 2007 pay discrimination case.” 

“Most tellingly, she touched upon the key question that I believe the Court is still working through: what to do with the law if the individual mandate is indeed found to be unconstitutional.”“My sources (which I freely admit to be third-hand) suggest that Kennedy will side with the conservatives and strike down the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that nearly every American must buy health insurance. The key question is: how much of the rest of the law should be struck down along with it?” 

“Ginsburg wittily put it this way: ‘If the individual mandate, requiring the purchase of insurance or the payment of a penalty, if that is unconstitutional, must the entire act fall? Or, may the mandate be chopped, like a head of broccoli, from the rest of the act?’” 

“My understanding—again, from third-hand sources—is that this question of severability is the subject of intense debate among the justices, even now. It’s entirely unclear whether the Court will strike down the mandate and two related provisions—what I’ve called the “strike three” scenario; or take down the entirety of Title I, where the law’s restructuring of the private insurance market resides; or overturn the whole law. Indeed, it is probable that the Court has not yet decided how it will rule on this question.”

In any event, those in the know believe the decision will be handed down on June 25.

In other news, New York Magazine reveals, “The Obama campaign announced today that it has picked John Kerry to serve as Mitt Romney's stand-in during President Obama's debate preparation. Kerry was chosen as Obama's sparring partner partly because he knows Romney's life and career so well; partly because he, as the Washington Post writes, ‘has long been considered one of the Democratic Party’s most skilled debaters’; and partly because the robot dad from the Duracell battery commercials had other commitments."