WSJ: Justice Department Seeks High-Court Review of Health Law
By Shaun Kenney | Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 | Policy, VirginiaThe Supreme Court is going to take a look at the Obamacare lawsuit brought by 26 states Attorneys General, ideally before the November 2012 elections:
The court could indicate as soon as November whether and when it will hear the case. It is a near certainty the justices will get involved, especially because lower courts have issued conflicting rulings on the law’s constitutionality. The Obama administration has prevailed at two other appeals courts.
If the Supreme Court does agree to hear the case this term, it would issue its ruling during the thick of the 2012 presidential election campaign.
The 11th Circuit decision appealed by the Justice Department came in the highest-profile challenge to the law: a lawsuit filed by Republican attorneys general and governors from 26 states, including Florida, Michigan and Texas, as well as the National Federation of Independent Business and two individuals.
This challenge is distinct from the Cuccinelli challenge to Obamacare, which was dismissed by the 4th Circuit Court earlier this month.
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Shaun Kenney is the Chairman of the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors, former Communications Director for the Republican Party of Virginia, and an active blogger since 2002. Shaun lives in Thomas Jefferson's backyard with his wife, six children, and a modest attempt at a farm in Kents Store, Virginia.
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7 Responses to "WSJ: Justice Department Seeks High-Court Review of Health Law"
I’ve never really bought into the cosmic significance of the legal challenges to Obamacare. The Supreme Court is highly unlikely to invalidate every sentence of the law. So either they approve it and gut any restriction on the Commerce Clause (and thus the Federal government) or they strike down the individual mandate and leave the rest. Isn’t the critical question whether Obama is reelected or not? If he’s reelected he will push through some version of Obamacare no matter what the courts say. In some sense his re-election would be a tacit acceptance of Obamacare since it would not be based on his economic (non) achievements. If he’s not re-elected then Obamacare will likely not survive (although you never know with Republicans). Even politically Obama has more to gain than to lose from any SVOTUS decision short of nullification.
The problem is that the government can mandate universal health care. What they cannot do constitutionally is mandate universal health coverage.
They are not going to fix the problem of increased health care costs anyhow until they do tort reform. Fix the lawyers, fix the liabilities and paperwork… and health care becomes a hell of a lot cheaper overnight.
Until then… we’re spinning our wheels. Ever wonder how Sulla came to power in the Roman Republic? Here ya go…
Shaun’s point is crucial. If the individual mandate is struck down, then the only way Obama can save the plan is universal coverage, i.e. single-payer. That damned near killed ObamaCare in the House the first go-around. In fact, Obama ran against Clinton’s single-payer option in the primaries and only adopted single-payer when he had the nomination and was way up in the polls. If he has to run on single-payer in 2012, he will lose both the Independents and the Blue Dogs.
Question is whether the SCOTUS will find Obamacare’s coverage mandate unconstitutional, but find there’s enough language in Obamacare to mandate single-payer universal health care.
If so, and the coverage portions are struck out, we could be in for some serious pain, folks…
The individual mandate is also the cornerstone of the economic model under which Obamacare will operate. Without it, single payer may be mandated, but it won’t be economically sustainable and would become an “unfunded mandate” on Medicade which the states can’t and wouldn’t implement. Most states have laws requiring a fiscal balanced budget and compliance would push them into insolvency.
Ancient Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.”
My prediction is that the mandate will be struck down while the remaining bill is still in tack. They rely on the racist suntan tax.
Meanwhile, Obama was running on single-payer and if the courts rule in that manner, he will win his loyal liberals back and still save face with his moderates/independents for the court striking it down. There’s tape of him saying they would take a back door method to single-payer and I believe him. He’s done everything he’s set out to do to include fundamental change. No one can argue with that.
We’re stuck with Obamacare because Republicans aren’t going to fight for repeal, they enjoy that control just as much as the Democrats.
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