This will come down to Anthony Kennedy

[Godot showed up]

When the individual mandate challenges reach the USSC, you'll see (and maybe sooner) that there's ample precedent to deny the federal government police powers through the commerce clause. See especially:


caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=505&invol=144

and


caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=U10287

Oh...I was just listening to Laura Ingraham as I was writing this and New York v. United States just got a mention from Bill McCollum.


Read Justice Thomas' concurrence, particularly.

But this is the real world, and we know how this is going to go: Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and Roberts against; Stevens, Ginsberg, Breyer, and Sotomayor for.

With Kennedy the "swing" vote.

So I guess the question really is: what blackmail does Obama have on Kennedy? (There's nothing he can offer him, really, so it's going to have to be the stick, not the carrot). Because he's going to want to make sure that this goes his way, and we all know how Obama operates.

[wolfknight]

Actually, I'm wondering what this helathcare law will do to Roe v. Wade.

Unless I am mistaken, the idea is that Roe prohibits the state from making declarations regarding an individual's decisions in their medical care.

So, does Obamacare have the unintended consequence of weakening or overturning Roe v. Wade, or will challenge to Obamacare under Roe V. Wade be possible?

[Godot showed up]

Mar 24, 2010 13:56:21 GMT -5 wolfknight said:

Actually, I'm wondering what this helathcare law will do to Roe v. Wade.

Unless I am mistaken, the idea is that Roe prohibits the state from making declarations regarding an individual's decisions in their medical care.

So, does Obamacare have the unintended consequence of weakening or overturning Roe v. Wade, or will challenge to Obamacare under Roe V. Wade be possible?

Yes you're right, and on 9th amendment grounds, too. Let's turn that idea the other way: is Roe a precedent for helping to decide against Obamacare?

[wolfknight]

I think this whole idea with Roe v Wade falls under the heading of "unintended consequences" that can be clearly attributed to poor planning and execution of the practice of bill writing.