This article by Jane Anne Morris was published on her website, DemocracyThemePark.org, on November 23, 2014.
In the “Obamacare” decision, Chief Justice Roberts masterfully executed what the Zulu call “buffalo horns” — the pincer strategy. Purchase of health insurance is mandatory (a 5-4 vote), BUT states are not required to expand Medicaid to cover the people who can’t afford insurance (a 7-2 vote). The combination is a perfect way to anger many (excepting most health care and insurance corporations), without helping those most in need, while appearing to set aside partisanship.
Also pretty smooth was Roberts’s rounding up of five votes (his own plus the four “conservatives”) to affirm that the commerce clause cannot be the “hook” for this broad social welfare legislation–the first time since the New Deal that the Supreme Court put its foot down in this manner. Additionally, this is the Court’s fourth case since 1995 signaling the waning of power of the commerce clause to support a range of environmental, labor, and civil rights law. Need a quick example? Clean Water Act. …
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