Today Justice John Roberts stuck his finger in the eye of every true constitutionalist in the country. His "leftist" vote upheld the liberty-snatching bill called Obamacare and opened the door to endless Congressional power grabs in the future.
While the country waited for the outcome of Justice Kennedy's vote (which was supposed to be the tie breaker and could go either way), the chief justice throws the proverbial curve ball and strikes us all out.
Justices Scalia, Alito, Kennedy and Thomas weighed the case in terms of the commerce clause which was the correct avenue. From the beginning the government argued that the law was valid under the designation of the commerce clause. The aforementioned justices concurred that the law in fact did not meet the criteria necessary under the commerce clause and that in fact it was unconstitutional. Lower courts had already ruled in like fashion. This would have been the end of the story; the law would have been thrown out in its entirety. However, Justice Roberts concluded that yes, the law did not meet the requirements under the commerce clause but it could nevertheless stand because a citizen who doesn't purchase insurance as specified in the mandate will be "taxed." The President on more than one occasion had specified that there would be no "tax." Yet the solicitor general, when arguing his case before the court, claimed this would be a tax and Roberts agreed.
Sadly, this opens the door to more and more mandates from the Federal Government. As Justice Scalia said, if the government can force a citizen to buy health insurance what else might the government force a citizen to buy...broccoli?
Our Constitution has been diluted by one whom we thought was on our side. We now must rally and get out the vote in November if we hope to stop this assault on our liberty.
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