Thursday, March 29, 2012

SCOTUS On The Affordable Care Act


JUSTICE SCALIA: Mr. Kneedler, what happened to the Eighth Amendment? You really want us to go through these 2,700 pages?
(Laughter.)
JUSTICE SCALIA: And do you really expect the Court to do that? Or do you expect us to -- to give this function to our law clerks?
Is this not totally unrealistic? That we are going to go through this enormous bill item by item and decide each one?
Yes, Mr. Scalia, we expect you to read the whole thing.  We expect our soldiers in Afghanistan to carry 90 lb packs in 100 degree temperatures.  This isn't a Koch sponsored speaking luncheon at a luxury resort that you and Clarence Thomas like to attend.  This is work and sometimes its hard.  Most Americans are familiar with hard work, obviously Mr. Scalia isn't.
Scalia again displaying his unsuitability for his post;
 "If we struck down nothing in this legislation but the -- what's it called, the Cornhusker kickback, okay, we find that to violate the constitutional proscription of venality, okay?" asked Scalia, talking to Paul Clement. "When we strike that down, it's clear that Congress would not have passed it without that. It was the means of getting the last necessary vote in the Senate. And you are telling us that the whole statute would fall because the Cornhusker kickback is bad. That can't be right."
Mr. Scalia doesn't know that the "Cornhusker Kickback" isn't in the bill.  It was removed before passage over two years ago.  Other Scalia comments comparing the Affordable Care Act to the government mandating its citizens eat broccoli, demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the Affordable Care Act.  The folks at MSNBC had a field day with Scalia's ridiculous argument.

Al Sharpton said;""Folks, healthcare is not broccoli or cell phones or the gym, it's a fundamental right of every American and our government has the power to protect that right."  Paul Krugman added;  "Astonishingly, many of the justices appear not to understand that health care isn't like the market for cars or broccoli."


Even more disturbing is this Bloomberg poll;
Image Bloomberg; full story here
 3 out 4 Americans feel that the justices on SCOTUS will decide the Affordable Care Act based solely on politics instead of the merits of the case.  Apparently, I'm not the only one to bitterly remember the 2000 election that was nullified by SCOTUS, not for any good reason, other than they wanted Bush to be president.  After that decision the 5 conservative activist judges decided that corporations are people.  A decision that can be critiqued by toddlers.  Senator McCain put it nicely.

John McCain:
"What the Supreme Court did is a combination of arrogance, naivete and stupidity the likes of which I have never seen,"
The 5 conservative justices, can't be bothered to read the bill, aren't bothered by precedent, and most assuredly will decide the case based on their political beliefs and in accordance with their fancy luxury resort conference buddies.  

Rachel Maddow summarizes neatly:
It's problematic enough that Americans lack confidence that Supreme Court justices will be objective and fair; it's worse that we can't count on justices to do their homework, either.

We need to rename the Supreme Court of the United States to the Conservative Republican Court of the United States.  CORP COURT. The fact that they have turned our court into a 3 stooges vaudville act, bothers them little, their already booking their next Koch sponsored luxury conference where they won't need to read anything and everything they say is wildly applauded. 


Most Americans say they don't like the healthcare bill, but when they are asked about specific provisions of the bill they are vastly in favor of it.
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