The man who had the most traffic to gain from yesterday’s news.
Follow ShortFormBlog • Find us on Twitter & Facebook
From POLITICO Pro this chart shows the main provisions of the law after the ruling.
For those keeping score at home: 24 upheld, one on hold by Obama himself, one weakened by the Supreme Court.
Romney’s response to the Supreme Court ruling. Key words: ”Obamacare was bad policy yesterday. It’s bad policy today.” He thinks this is a mandate to get Obama out of office.
Please, immediately, stop taunting on social networks about CNN and others’ SCOTUS ruling mistake and the AP getting it right. That’s not the impression we want to reflect as an organization. Let our reporting take the lead.Associated Press Central U.S. regional editor David Scott • In a memo to their reporters and editors, asking them to stop taunting other media organizations that got it wrong.
Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness.Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the opinion that reflected a 5-4 vote on whether the individual mandate is constitutional as a tax. (via usatoday)
Everyone Slow Down, Redux Edition
This is an update to our post earlier this morning about slowing down, digesting and getting things right before rushing to report.
CNN didn’t and instead ran banner headlines on its site about the Supreme Court striking down the individual mandate.
Fox too but, well, somehow that’s less surprising.
This is tagged “slow news movement.” I like that.
For those looking for some breezy summer reading. Here’s the end of the dissent:
The Constitution, though it dates from the founding of the Republic, has powerful meaning and vital relevance to our own times. The constitutional protections that this case involves are protections of structure. Structural protections—notably, the restraints imposed by federalism and separation of powers—are less romantic and have less obvious a connection to personal freedom than the provisions of the Bill of Rights or the Civil War Amendments. Hence they tend to be undervalued or even forgotten by our citizens. It should be the responsibility of the Court to teach otherwise, to remind our people that the Framers considered structural protections of freedom the most important ones, for which reason they alone were embodied in the original Constitution and not left to later amendment. The fragmentation of power produced by the structure of our Government is central to liberty, and when we destroy it, we place liberty at peril. Today’s decision should have vindicated, should have taught, this truth; instead, our judgment today has disregarded it.
For the reasons here stated, we would find the Act invalid in its entirety. We respectfully dissent.
If Roberts does end up being the fifth and deciding vote to uphold Obamacare, Bush’s Supreme Court legacy will be regarded as a failure too. His reputation among conservatives will never recover.Washington Examiner columnist Conn Carroll • Suggesting, all the way back in March, that John Roberts would be the deciding vote on health care, based on an American Bar Association survey. Called it. (ht Andrew Sullivan)
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.The “money quote” from the individual mandate section of the health care decision, according to SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe.
In case you haven’t heard, CNN sorta screwed this up. The law was mostly upheld. (ht @BuzzfeedAndrew)
The individual mandate survives as a tax.SCOTUSblog, on the Health Care decision. More as we get it. EDIT: SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe says “The Medicaid provision is limited but not invalidated.” EDIT 2:
Fun fact: In addition to health care, the court will also issue rulings on two other cases Thursday. United States v. Alvarez centers around whether a law banning false claims about military honors received violates the First Amendment, while First American Financial Corp v. Edwards will determine whether homeowners who weren’t adversely affected by certain corrupt bank practices can still file suit anyway. Rulings on these two cases will be issued first, meaning that the health care decision probably won’t come out until around 10:15am EST or so.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
