Could it be the SCOTUS feels an impending reigning in? That the consent of the governed still actually means something?
and have done the same on numerous other issues. daca and obamacare come to mind. instead of ruling on the clear unconstitutionality of both, they rely on legal minutia and questionable and all to convenient interpretation to sidestep the major issue. seems to be the hallmark of the roberts court, avoid everything.
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Yep. The ACA was Unconstitutional on its face and should have been tossed as soon as it hit the docket. Legislation written by the insurance industry, not the legislature. Just another symptom of a government that has veered from the Constitution.
What was unConstitutional about ACA specifically?
Government mandating individuals purchase something from private companies or be fined. I said as much when they were passing it.
Thank you. And what clause of the Constitution does that violate?
When Trump reduced the “tax” to zero, did that fix that specific portion?
as is daca. but roberts court likes to sidestep issues instead of confront them. he seems to believe it keeps the coiurt out of the politics, which is 100% dead wrong, it embroils it in them. just make the decision and let the politicians worry about the fallout. roberts won’t do it because he’s a politician in a dress.
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Right to association for one thing. The government can’t force me to be in a club or a club to take me either for that matter.
Yes and no. I don’t think parts of a law should be stricken to make the law ok. If part of the law is bad, the whole thing should be rejected and tossed back for a do-over. By the Legislature.
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I agree, but don’t restrict it to Roberts. Every Chief is more concerned about the legacy of his tenure than the actual law from what I can see.
In fact, the SCOTUS seems to consider everything else before the Constitution. Especially lately.
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for starters, it was never a “tax”, it was a penalty. roberts declaration of it being a tax goes against all previous scotus rulings on “penalties” not to mention since neither side argued it was not a controversy before the court. basically, he made that up.
Thanks. I’m not disagreeing, just understanding.
Can you provide an example of one of those previous rulings please?
He pretzeled it that way because he knew it couldn’t stand as written. Redefine what words mean and speak for the Legislature. Requiring a permit isn’t an infringement either according to the courts.
I also think he went with not ruling against it as that would have opened the door to other things like social security/medicaid/income taxes being challenged down the road on the same basis. Just my own theory though.
i’ll have to research, but i know for fact that scotus has ruled on it specifically in past cases and in all of them has said that if the law calls it a penalty, its not a tax, its a penalty. this was bought up at the time and ignored. i’ll look for one, may be a while, but i’ll dig one up.
as for it not being a controversy before the court, both sides agreed it was not a tax. no argument was made that it was.
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One might be hard pressed to find recent law actually written be legislators.
I know. It’s something I’ve been railing about. For years.
Elections in this country have also been rigged for a long time now. Just not in the way most people think they have.
I appreciate it.
Do we really want some of the least cognitively able members of our society actually writing?
If they went back to actually writing them, there would be a lot fewer getting passed.
If they’re the “least cognitively able” maybe people shouldn’t be voting for them in the first place.
How many of our representatives run based on their ability to govern? If anything, it’s simply turned into a giant popularity contest. Too many people assume that just because a candidate has a certain letter behind the name or says they’re going to do something, they’re going to keep acting in their interests once they have or retake the office. People don’t hold them accountable. We as a whole share a bulk of the blame for government getting where it is now.
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Could we understand them?
