Sadly, not even Democrats really expect the four Democrat appointees to do anything other than back any government claim of power. It is up to the other five judges to study and apply the constitution.
What may very will happen (or has happened on Friday) is that the Chief Justice reserved his vote for last. And whatever way it went he voted with the majority and took the option to write the argument (a CJ option.) That way he can tailor the opinion as he wishes.
It would be much more entertaining if the reverse was done. Could you imagine the shock if Kagan voted against the ACA?
If it didn’t Kagan would have disqualified herself.
I doubt there was any leak. What happened was that during oral arguements the Justices didn’t look at precident and instead treated the law as if it were new law going into new territory. That is very dangerous for the government’s case. Given the expectations of victory the government had going into last week, they are now in shock.
They would be in more of a panic mode than they are now, I think. And very vindictive.
With silence, so I think that didn’t happen either.
He isn’t. and it would be a terrible situation in the Court if one of the justices leaked the finding prior to the official release. It would present a situation that the other justices would no longer trust them in any conferences. Pretty much making them unable to function. It simply doesn’t happen.
No doubt they are in shock at the prospect of the SC treating the constitution as a check on government power instead of going with precedent and granting a blank check to this new expansion.
I’m not convinced of this. I think they are displaying exactly that sort of panic and vindictiveness right now. Any more would look depserate and unhinged.
Right, I do think we can rule this out. We can be fairly certain that Obama does not know that Obamacare will be upheld as constitutional.
You began by doubting but now you are certain? It is at least plausible.
Only if they were caught.
Of course, and besides clerks there is always the possibilty of technological espionage. Stranger things have happened.
He definately was having an off day.
The government has pretty much had free reign on commerce since about 1940
Well if the mandate is found to be unconstitutional, we’ll see just how much vindictiveness can come out of Washington DC.
No, I think he knows what we know, which is that it could go either way. Chances are they will uphold it though. Kennedy will probably find a limiting factor.
possible maybe
there are so few who know, it wouldn’t take much to figure out who leaked
Maybe. That would be more likely after things started getting written up. The only leak I know of is in the case of a news alert that a decision would be announced the next day. It turned out to be someone in the print shop who leaked it. They were removed immediately.
Minor exceptions aside, this is true enough. Even so, it’s one thing for Pelosi to stammer incredulously at a question about constitutionality, another thing entirely for an experienced attorney to flounder in such a crucial hearing. It was almost as if he was a surprised as Pelosi.
The SG may have thought that the court would have been much more receptive to his argument and when Justice Kennedy started asking a lot of questions, he may have been thrown for a loop. He also may have been ill. He was coughing a lot at the beginning.
Would it be possible that the White House tried to ignore the SC if they throw out the bill? Doesn’t seem likely but I seem to recall reading that the SC was generally ignored in its early years.
The first law that was thrown out by the SCOTUS on constitutional grounds was the Judiciary Act of 1789 in Marbury v. Madison in 1803. A case about which Obama probably taught his students. It was not ignored. Marbury never became a Justice of the Peace in DC. However, you are correct, the Court has sometimes been ignored throughout its history, often to the detriment of Justice and freedom. Even Lincoln ignored it’s rulings although his excuse was that we were in the middle of a Civil War at the time.
The true statement is “a law that was passed exclusively by Democrats”.
WOW.
Meh, Obama thinks that the Constitution is a deeply flawed document.
Wow. A politician critical of unelected judges…I’ve never heard that before