Thursday, June 28, 2012

Chief Justice Roberts decides not to legislate from the bench

On March 27 of this year I had written on this blogsite that I hoped that the Supreme Court would not legislate from the bench and overturn one of the biggest and most consequential laws passed by the legislature in decades.  My hope was realized today as the Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Roberts, sided with the four "liberal justices" and upheld Obamacare (Affordable Care Act).  


As I understand it, Chief Roberts' main argument is that the charge that it was unconstitutional to have the "individual mandate" force people to buy health insurance is a false one because there actually is no mandate, only a penalty for those who refuse to buy insurance, which is nothing more than a tax, which Congress has the constitutional right to impose.


If the country doesn't like Obamacare, the proper remedy is at the ballot box. If the Republicans want to base their November campaigns on overturning the health care law, that is up to them.  But to my mind, there are much more important issues confronting the country:  the economy, the deficit, the still too reckless financial system, the Eurozone crisis, and the Arab Awakening and the changes it is causing in the middle east, for example.  


I thought that Obama wasted a precious year and a half at the start of his presidency focusing on health care rather than concentrating on the terrible Great Recession.  I hope that the Republicans don't make the same mistake now.  There are more important issues to deal with than this ideological obsessions of the right wing.