I am anxiously awaiting the announcement of the ACA decision. I have multiple blog pages open and am hoping to catch the one that can give us the first glimpse of the Court's decision.
While we are waiting you can feel free to engage in idle speculation or discuss other things.
What I dread most about the possible overturning of the law is not simply that it will undo a year's worth of agonizing work on the most difficult public policy issue of our time, but the thought of hearing those braying jackasses on the right engaging in triumphalism, while trying to paint the President, rather than the Court, as lawless.
Be back in a bit.
Amy Howe at SCOTUS Blog says it survives as a tax. Dianne Riehm just announced that they struck it down. I hate this.
Tom Goldstein just announced that the mandate survives and that Chief Justice Roberts joined the left of the Court in upholding it. Very good news. I will try to read and get a little more info.
Goldstein just wrote the following:
The bottom line: the entire ACA is upheld, with the exception that the federal government's power to terminate states' Medicaid funds is narrowly read.
Nice.
And still more from SCOTUS Blog:
The money quote from the section on the mandate: Our precedent demonstrates that Congress had the power to impose the exaction in Section 5000A under the taxing power, and that Section 5000A need not be read to do more than impose a tax. This is sufficient to sustain it.
I want to see the opinion -- SCOTUS Blog seems to suggest that it is 5-4 with Roberts saving the day. Miraculous really.
