Don’t be fooled by the false praise being heaped upon Chief Justice John Roberts by the mainstream media and its favorite go-to legal commentators. Jeffrey Toobin, no less, of the New Yorker and CNN, lets the cat out of the bag–they are celebrating Roberts’s opinion in the Obamacare case, even though they know it is a total farce:
In the end, of course, Roberts did uphold the A.C.A. as an exercise of the constitutional power to tax. Frankly, that argument is not a persuasive one. As the conservative Justices wrote in their joint dissenting opinion, taxes are enforced contributions to support a government; penalties are punishments for unlawful acts. The individual mandate is clearly designed to induce the purchase of insurance, and the only people who have to pay the fees are the ones who refuse to go along. That sounds a lot like a penalty. But it was good enough for Roberts, and it led to the correct result. Any port will do in a constitutional storm.
A constitutional storm, yes–one of Obama’s own creation, when Obamacare passed in March 2010 and when he attacked the Supreme Court in March 2012.
It’s in the left’s interest to praise Roberts now, having demonized him in the weeks leading up to the decision. Not only does the ruling uphold Obamacare and give apparent substance to the Obama presidency, but it also gives the left an excuse to keep beating up the so-called conservative, “politicized” Court over its Commerce Clause holding, while demonstrating that such bullying is devastatingly effective.
As the Wall Street Journal notes today, Roberts’s decision is a blow to the rule of law. And the left is laughing.
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