House of Eratosthenes

Chief Justice John Roberts has handed a remarkable victory to American conservatives by threading the judicial needle with perfect precision. The initial disappointment collectively felt by Americans who had hoped for a Supreme Court ruling that would overturn Obamacare soon will be replaced, upon further reflection, by the excitement that will come with a fuller appreciation of what the Chief Justice has wrought.

First, almost completely unnoticed, the Chief Justice voted with his four conservative colleagues in drawing an unprecedented red line against Washington wielding the Constitution’s Commerce Clause in the future to justify federal intrusion into the personal lives of Americans. This decision will restrict American Presidents and future Congresses for a generation and more.
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There is now a formal United States Supreme Court opinion on the books, overdue by nearly a century, holding that the federal government may not wield the Commerce Clause to impose on American citizens the obligation to buy health insurance or anything else we do not want. An American cannot be compelled by federal mandate to eat or even to buy a proverbial stalk of broccoli. As a kosher consumer, the federal government cannot wield that clause to impose on me an obligation to purchase non-kosher food supplements. The rules guiding lower-court wrestling matches over federal power to invade Americans’ private lives now have been reset remarkably by Chief Justice Roberts.
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Secondly, Chief Justice Roberts has punted the whole ninety yards, so to speak, with the expertise of a professional football kicker whose team has the ball on its own 8-yard-line, then punts ninety yards, pinning the other team on their own two-yard-line. Had Chief Justice Roberts sided completely with his four conservative colleagues, Obamacare now would be off the political table for the November elections. Obama would be campaigning and mobilizing his troops’ passions, arguing an urgent need to reconfigure the Court. Romney, by contrast, would be trying to mobilize passion for a lackluster campaign that is impelled legitimately by one crying urgency: jobs and the economy. However, Romney is not gifted at bringing people to their feet, not for applauding and possibly not for voting. He is competent, perhaps excellent, maybe even extraordinary — but his blandness does not generate passion.
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Third, the Chief Justice has shifted the spotlight back onto Congress, primarily focusing its glare on the Democrat-run U.S. Senate, only four months before the elections. Republicans rapidly will beat down ObamaCare in the House like a piñata at a children’s party. It is an easy target. It is excessive and intrusive. It is financially devastating, will cause employers to drop health coverage for their employees, and will force millions to lose their preferred doctors and instead to settle on government-supplied alternatives. Seniors will find that $500 million in coverage has been sliced out of their Medicare. Employers will continue resisting expanding their work forces and reviving the flagging labor market while the issue remains in flux, assuring stagnating unemployment numbers through November.

Fourth, the Chief Justice, while permitting the federal government to offer states more money to expand their Medicaid rolls beyond their fiscal capabilities, joined with his four conservative colleagues in banning Washington from penalizing states that turn down the federal inducements to march towards bankruptcy…

Still not sure about all this, myself. But these are persuasive arguments that I am finding to be more and more persuasive as I continue in the dreary task of absorbing what has happened…

There are other conservatives defending the Chief Justice. Eric Erickson has a similar run-down of these and other points, and cutely quips “I guess we can tax the hell out of abortion now.” Heh.

If liberals were capable of imagining the frightening scenario, wherein their newly-discovered newly-forged newly-cast shiny sparkly mega-super Sword of a Thousand Truths falls into the hands of someone else who doesn’t agree with them about everything — they wouldn’t be liberals. That is one of the most important defining distinctions, is it not? If conservatives are in charge of government and government is suddenly empowered to do a whole lot more, first thought in their heads is “Well yeah, but what happens when the other guys take over?” Liberals in charge of government and government can do more, they don’t have so much of as a residual trace of this killjoy thought anywhere in their craniums, not so much as a whiff of it. It’s all sunshine and flowers and parades and high-fives “Yay, we can do stuff, we’re so awesome!”

Time is always frozen, the other guys will never get voted in, ever…all of the foresight and comprehension of time, of a third-grader hearing the final school dismissal bell at the beginning of summer vacation.

So I can definitely buy this much of the argument: The lefties are getting blindsided. Huge. Don’t tell them. This is where they start showing their immaturity and lack of fitness for office, which only helps matters. It helps lay out the case that they don’t belong where they are. Which is true.

I don’t know. I think the “can be read as a tax” is a “too clever by half” Harvard moment. Seems an open invitation to the Sophism games that have been the means by which the Democrats push their agenda.
- Robert Mitchell Jr. | 06/29/2012 @ 10:56
Yup, I hear that.

The Point Number One is true, though, regardless, and it IS a pretty big f*cking deal, to coin a phrase.
- mkfreeberg | 06/29/2012 @ 11:41
Only if we didn’t just switch one magic word for a fresher one…..
- Robert Mitchell Jr. | 06/29/2012 @ 12:01
Yup, sure, some women enjoy being raped too. Just ask the rapists, they’ll tell ya’.

Sometimes us conservatives are too optimistic for or own good. Looking for the bright side of the turd is a little much.

I can hear it now, come 2014 in Obama’s second term, (Remember when an Obama presidency was “good” for the “conservative movement) when the assault on the 2nd Amendment is heard in the SCOTUS and they rule it no longer is necessary…there is no militia anymore…blah, blah…the conservatives ever grasping for optimism…“Hey, at least we still have slingshots”.

Just shut the fuck up, are freedoms are slowly being taken away, stop with ‘Up With People’ shit.

Tell us how Arizona being prevented form upholding FEDERAL immigration law is good. Tell us how abortion is good. Tell us how being forced to participate in the government retirement program, that being SS, is good. Shall I go on or do you get the point? Or are you too busy being politely optimistic, ya’ bunch of ‘The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow’ idiots.

This all happened and we let it. Are we not responsible for letting it happen? No, it’s them? Fine. Then we’re just occupying space, accomplishing what exactly?…the moral high ground, being civil, finding the bright side of it all, thankful for the glass being at least half full? Yippee.

Oh how Jefferson and Madison and the rest would be so very proud of us.
- tim | 06/29/2012 @ 12:11
And…the repeal of any tax can occur as the result of a simple majority of Senators and Representatives agreeing to the motion.
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- TMI | 06/29/2012 @ 12:50
Freedoms are also slowly coming back. See the long march through the institutions by the people reclaiming the Second Amendment. We do have to keep fighting these battles, so your counsel of despair is pointless if not counterproductive.

Ah, the guys who passed the Alien and Sedition Acts stand in judgement over us? I think they would be proud of us. They were there first, and were not plaster saints.
- Robert Mitchell Jr. | 06/29/2012 @ 12:52
The problem I foresee…

What happens if/when we don’t get a simple majority in the Senate?

In the same vein: when was the last time any of us heard of Congress repealing a tax?
- The Watcher | 06/29/2012 @ 19:11
The Watcher–

Then, we need ask, what did you do to help prevent this?

Me? I’m a precinct committee person for the Republican Party. I walk the neighborhood streets, talking to voters. Knocking on doors. Asking questions.

What are you doing?
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- TMI | 06/29/2012 @ 23:52
[…] think it works as a thought experiment…..Morgan is pretty sure that liberals can’t do thought experiments and that’s what makes t……he’s probably right, but I’m keeping mine lined up unless you have a better one. […]
- Are we ready for a NEW Mandate now? « | 06/30/2012 @ 05:42
I’ve seen a bit of a bright side to this (see especially the “now Romney has a real issue to run on” thing), but the only real cause for optimism I can find is: It’s obvious how far we’ve fallen into banana republic-dom.

Maybe everything Fischer writes is true, but something else is also true: We’ve established, as a matter of constitutional law, that the government can do whatever the fuck it wants via the power to tax. If you can put a tax on NOT purchasing something, then there is virtually no activity whatsoever that cannot be regulated via this “tax” power.

If I were in Congress (shudder), I’d start introducing the craziest, most far-reaching social engineering stuff I could think of as “taxes,” just to point out the absurdity of it all. A tax on not buying a copy of the Constitution (so that maybe liberals would actually read the fucking thing to see what’s really in there). A bill requiring churches to charge membership fees, and then a tax on not buying a membership. A tax on not not getting an abortion. A tax on not sleeping with me (via my gigolo business). &c.

Make no mistake: we are well and truly boned. And as The Watcher points out: Has any tax ever been repealed? New York’s real estate market (just to take one small example) is such a mess thanks to rent controls left over from World War II.
- Severian | 06/30/2012 @ 06:46

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“The Chief Justice Done Us Good”Friday, June 29th, 2012

“The Chief Justice Done Us Good”
Friday, June 29th, 2012