With Chief Justice John Roberts casting the pivotal vote on a 5/4 decision, President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act was virtually fully upheld by the nation’s highest court.
The Court rejected the Administration’s argument that mandating care insurance was permitted under the Commerce Clause, yet it justified the mandate under the government’s power to tax.
Apparently Roberts stepped back from the brink. After the dubious (and unnecessary) intervention in anointing President George W. Bush as president and then the recent widely vilified Citizens United decision, the Chief Justice decided that another outright political decision by the court would forever scar his court’s reputation.
Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed his pleasure and relief and pointed out that the law is far from perfect and welcomed working with Republicans to bring about improvements.
The announcement had great drama because at the outset of Roberts’ reading of the majority’s decision the “mandate” argument was ruled invalid. The audience surmised that the law was about to be ruled unconstitutional. But then Roberts read that the Court was going to uphold the law under Congress’s right to tax.
We receive the news with mixed feelings. The act protects…correction, enhances … all special interests at the likely cost to the tax payers. Had the Affordable Care Act been largely ruled unconstitutional, our headling would have been: “Enact ‘Medicare for All’ and fund with a Value Added Tax.”
