Obamacare goes to Supreme Court Monday

[Dedicated Mind]

good work po, this should be interesting material.

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by Dedicated Mind

good work po, this should be interesting material.

Transcript is also available:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arg...98-Tuesday.pdf

It's helpful to recognize who is talking while you are listening to the audio, IMO.

[Pressing-On]

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Why didn't Congress call it a tax, then?

GENERAL VERRILLI: Well -CHIEF

JUSTICE ROBERTS: You're telling me they thought of it as a tax, they defended it on the tax power. Why didn't they say it was a tax?

[Pressing-On]

JUSTICE SCALIA: You're saying that all the discussion we had earlier about how this is one big uniform scheme and the Commerce Clause, blah, blah, blah, it really doesn't matter. This is a tax and the Federal Government could simply have said, without all of the rest of this legislation, could simply have said, everybody who doesn't buy health insurance at a certain age will be taxed so much money, right?

GENERAL VERRILLI: It -- it used its powers together to solve the problem of the market not -

JUSTICE SCALIA: Yes, but you didn't need that.

GENERAL VERRILLI -- providing affordable coverage -

JUSTICE SCALIA: You didn't need that. If it's a tax, it's only -- raising money is enough.

GENERAL VERRILLI: It is justifiable under its tax power.

JUSTICE SCALIA: Okay. Extraordinary.

[Pressing-On]

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: We get tax credits for having solar-powered homes. We get tax credits for using fuel-efficient cars. Why couldn't we get a tax credit for having health insurance and saving the government from caring for us.

[Pressing-On]

Tomorrow the severability will be discussed. In other words, if the mandate is declared to be unconstitutional, will the whole healthcare bill need to go.

Today, Justice Kennedy, who is considered the swing vote, voiced his skepticism on the constitutionality of the mandate. He called it "unprecedented".

Here's hoping. You can't really judge by oral arguments, but it was a good sign.

[Pressing-On]

Justice Kennedy talking about the individual mandate at today's Supreme Court Hearing on ObamaCare:

"But the reason, the reason this is concerning, is because it requires the individual to do an affirmative act. In the law of torts our tradition, our law, has been that you don’t have the duty to rescue someone if that person is in danger. The blind man is walking in front of a car and you do not have a duty to stop him absent some relation between you. And there is some severe moral criticisms of that rule, but that’s generally the rule.

And here the government is saying that the Federal Government has a duty to tell the individual citizen that it must act, and that is different from what we have in previous cases and that changes the relationship of the Federal Government to the individual in the very fundamental way."