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Tag: Taxing and Spending Powers

Dissecting a Coffeehouse Combination

By Kevin Rex Heine, Section News
Posted on Thu Jul 05, 2012 at 06:45:55 PM EST
Tags: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, NFIB v. Sebelius (11-393), HHS v. Florida (11-398), Florida v. HHS (11-400), Individual Mandate, Medicaid Expansion, Commerce Clause, Necessary and Proper Clause, Taxing and Spending Powers, Tenth Amendment, separation of powers, checks and balances, elections have consequences, Anti-Injunction Act, shared responsibility payment, severability (all tags)

I think that, prior to last weekend, most everyone reasonable was expecting that the Supreme Court was going to rule both the Individual Mandate and the Medicaid Expansion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act an unconstitutional overreach of Congress' enumerated powers, specifically with regard to the Commerce Clause, the Necessary and Proper Clause, and perhaps even the Tenth Amendment. The only question would then become whether or not severability (or lack thereof) would give SCOTUS the necessary leverage to send Barry Obama's "signature achievement" down in flames. (That latter result seems to have been clearly anticipated by Speaker Boehner's "don't spike the ball" memo from 21 June.) But then, at around 10:07 a.m., on 28 June 2012, . . . well, we'll get to that.

To say that in the immediate aftermath opinions have varied as to what, exactly, John G. Roberts, jr., 17th Chief Justice of the United States, was thinking when he sided with the four hardcore liberals on the court in upholding the individual mandate (albeit as a tax) is probably an understatement. Yes, I absolutely agree with those who hold that Chief Roberts should have sided with the other four conservative associates (Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito) and eviscerated BHO's signature achievement, thus officially rendering his first year in office a complete waste of time. However, having taken the time to dissect the opinion as best as my non-legal expertise will provide, I'm rather inclined to believe that Chief Roberts is a masterful chess player, at least politically. As to why I think that way . . . well, let's go below the fold and discuss that.

In advance, I should probably warn you that this is going to get a bit lengthy, so you might find a fresh pot of coffee useful. This also may require more than one read-through, for the same reason.