Robert Shrum : Supreme Court vs President Obama : The Red Queen's jurisprudence of Alice in Wonderland : First the verdict, then the trial - Tea Party inside court is best friend and ally of Obama's reelection

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To kill an Obamacare Bird : We may be close to a Supreme Court Decision that would live in Infamy ! :

The Week
Will a Tea Party Supreme Court guarantee Obama a second term ?
The court's conservative wing appears ready to engage in some despicable judicial activism on ObamaCare. Politically, at least, the justices are doing Obama a favor
By Robert Shrum
March 30, 2012


Will a Tea Party Supreme Court guarantee Obama a second term ?

Some excerpts :

Largely missing from the coverage of the health reform case are the most important consequences of nullifying the law: The tragedy of tens of millions who would again be left without insurance; the plight of young adults now on their parents' policies who would be thrown off; the desperation of those with pre-existing conditions who would be left with no coverage and nowhere to turn; the agony of patients who, because of lifetime limits on their insurance, would see it canceled just before the next round of chemotherapy.

It took a hundred years to remedy all of this by passing health reform; it could take decades to pass it again if and after a changed Supreme Court reversed an ideologically driven denial of health care as a fundamental human right and not just another product in the market place.

Of course, the court could split the difference, voiding the mandate while validating other elements of the legislation. But to retain provisions like the one on pre-existing conditions would trigger an explosion in insurance premiums if people weren't required to buy coverage and could just wait for it until they were already ill. This may be the unlikeliest outcome of all. Both Roberts and Kennedy appeared inclined, in the absence of the individual mandate, to function as a super-legislature and dispense with the entire bill. During the argument, the Obama administration gave limited support to that notion — that some parts of the law simply can't be sustained without a mandate.

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The president certainly doesn't want to see his landmark achievement, unequaled since the New Deal and the civil rights revolution of the 1960s, left in the judicial dust. But ironically, such a result could rebound to his benefit. A politically infected court could produce a politically unexpected result that would confound the conventional punditry, strengthening him and weakening Romney and the Republicans.

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I hope for this, but I fear the alternative, a decision that would live in infamy — that would not only deprive millions of health care, but launch a de-evolution back to the grim days when the Supreme Court in 1918 struck down a child labor law with a rigidly narrow reading of the Commerce Clause.

In a second term, Barack Obama, if he has the chance to appoint new justices, could prevent a new era of reaction. Perhaps the GOP presidential candidates are right about the boilerplate echoing off the walls at their rallies — that this is "the most important election of our lifetime." And unless they draw back from the brink, a slim Republican majority on a debased Supreme Court will help Obama win it.

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