You may have read recently that another judge has ruled the individual mandate that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance unconstitutional: Federal judge rules Obamacare unconstitutional
"The full text of the decision from Federal Judge Roger Vinson is not available yet, but according to reporters who've seen the decision, he's ruled the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ruling favors of the 26 state attorney generals challenging the law. The judge ruled the individual mandate that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance invalid and, according to the decision, "because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void."
- The SF Examiner
This is very interesting but also somewhat irrelevant. Here's what you need to know. No matter which way this judge ruled or which way an appeals court is going to rule really doesn’t make any difference. This case is going to the US Supreme Court where it will be decided and all previous rulings will have very little impact. The Supreme Court with its current make up is likely to decide this case by a 5-4 vote.
Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas will all vote that the law is unconstitutional.
Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan and Sotomayor will all vote that the law is constitutional.
Kennedy is likely to be the deciding vote. That’s right, a 2,000 page piece of legislation that costs over $1 Trillion dollars is all going to come down to the vote of a single person. Don’t you love Democracy?!
On a happier note, we better hope that nothing happens to Roberts, Alito, Scalia or Thomas between now and then because if you replace any one of those four with a democratic appointed justice like Kagan or Sotomayor and its all over but the shouting.
By the way, Kennedy was appointed by a Republican president but has been known to vote on some things in a more liberal way, so it’s not a foregone conclusion how the final vote will turn out.
No comments:
Post a Comment