Political Implications of the Supreme Court Decision on Health Reform

Regardless of the facts about the benefits or costs of health reform, a majority of Americans still favor repeal of the legislation. Those numbers rose in the run up to the 2010 elections and helped provide the shellacking the President received in the mid-term elections. The fact that the health reform law remains in place may end up hurting the president's chances for re-election more than helping them. Chief Justice Roberts certainly knows this is a possibility and could have slyly saved reform, only to ultimately try to ensure its death.

I believe his hope is that the political process will undo the legislation. In his opinion he said, "Members of this Court are vested with the authority to interpret the law; we possess neither the expertise nor the prerogative to make policy judgments. Those decisions are entrusted to our Nation’s elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them. It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices." [emphasis mine] Hearkening back to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and his philosophy of judicial restraint, who once said, "If my fellow citizens want to go to Hell I will help them. It’s my job." Roberts is basically telling the people to choose a new leader, and then crafting a decision that is sure to inflame the Republican base...

...Had the court ruled the mandate unconstitutional as I had expected, yet left the rest of the act intact, it would have effectively taken this issue off the table for the election. Roberts has allowed the law to stand while deftly turning it into a political weapon, and then quietly imposed serious limitations on regulatory powers under the commerce clause. All while looking like a hero to his strongest detractors. And the court also ruled that the law’s expansion of Medicaid was unconstitutional...