Secular Café: Supreme Gods Hear Health Reform Mandate Arguments

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Supreme Gods Hear Health Reform Mandate Arguments Mar 28th 2012, 17:21 Our nine Supreme beings are examining the latest legal tribute laid before them and are already expressing some displeasure with their worshipper's offerings. Until a few days ago I assumed a full endorsement of the health care act was a given...now I am not so sure. As usual, the focus is on the Supreme Kennedy and this demi-god does not seem pleased with the arguments of the Obamacare tribute bearers. Quote: Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Kennedy. Based on today's argument, it looks like all four of those Justices accepted the basic framing of the case offered by the challengers to the mandate. In particular, they all seem to accept that a legal requirement of action is quite different from a legal requirement regulating action, and that therefore the expansive Commerce Clause precedents like Raich did not apply to this case. That was the key move Randy Barnett introduced... http://volokh.com/2012/03/28/four-th...date-argument/ Quote: Justice Kennedy's skepticism of the individual mandate, a provision of the legislation requiring almost every uninsured American to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty, did not end there. A few minutes later, he echoed the criticism lodged at the mandate by its opponents, who have argued that by requiring people to purchase insurance under the threat of a penalty, Congress breached its powers under the Constitution's commerce clause by forcing people to enter into commerce. "[W]hen you are changing the relation of the individual to the government in this… unique way," Justice Kennedy asked the government's counselor, "do you not have a heavy burden of justification to show authorization under the Constitution?" More than half-way through Verrilli's question-and-answer session, Justice Kennedy reiterated his concern over the government's requirement of "the individual to do an affirmative act." The unprecedented use of federal power, the justice continued, "changes the relationship of the Federal Government to the individual in [a] very fundamental way." While Justice Clarence Thomas maintained his usual silence during oral arguments, the other conservative justices also pounced on Verrilli, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. lodging the softest queries. http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelb...key-provision/ Let us hope that Kennedy has the courage of his seeming conviction...

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