Supreme Court Healthcare Ruling

Supreme Court Finally Shows Some Sense

The thoughts that must have run through Chief Justice Roberts head that lead him to conclude in favor of the Affordable Health Care Act will unfortunately never be known, but they most likely centered on his desire to appease his partisan base by further politicizing a real social issue and his duty to uphold the central role of the Judicial branch of the US government. 

Whereas most conservative in his predicament would have quickly taken the first option and continued politicizing every issue regardless of the validity or value to society, it appears Roberts finally woke up from the spell and had a brief moment of lucidity. To frame his decision as a betrayal or an attack against America is ludicrous and takes away from the simple fact that what Roberts did was merely look at an issue objectively using facts (something that is rarely done in the field of politics of late) and make a decision based on the greater good, not merely for the political gain of his party during an election year. 

For this forward thinking vision and flat out 'guts', Roberts should be applauded, especially given the extremely divisive political landscape that he currently faces. Yet, what the Justice did was precisely what every politician currently in power should be doing: make an educated decision based on the available facts that does the most good. Isn't that the entire moral obligation of a republic? In our current political wasteland however, when Roberts acts according to this ethos he is lauded as some kind of renegade activist, when in fact he was just doing his job. If every member of congress took his lead, i.e. the Republicans (wink wink), then perhaps we could begin the long process of rebuilding our devastated economy rather than playing political games that benefit no one except themselves. 

The Duty of The Supreme Court

Linda Greehouse of the Times writes a great article about Roberts decision-making showing how he reasoned that ""It is only because the Commerce Clause does not authorize such a command that it is necessary to reach the taxing power question, we have a duty to construe a statute to save it, if fairly possible."(bolding my own) It is this last sentence that to me really embodies his entire thinking and framework for coming to a decision. Justice Roberts understands that his job is not to legislate, but rather to uphold/repeal the legislation based on the constitution; i.e the Supreme Court. The reason I emphasize this is that it exemplifies how our government is supposed to function, and thank god at least one branch is working correctly. The 112th congress should all read this decision, then take a copy of the constitution home and actually read the thing. It quite clearly states that the legislative branch should work to create laws which support the policy of the executive and are then upheld by the judicial. It does not say that the job of congress is to stifle policy and create roadblocks and political barriers to prevent the country from operating effectively. 

Keeping the Dream Alive

The lasting effects of this decision in terms of the impact on our healthcare system are difficult to predict; yet it does ensure that regardless of who is elected in November, the healthcare debate will continue to be a central part of our national dialogue. That in itself is a victory, since our current healthcare system is completely broken, and if this bill had died a slow death at the hands of the supreme court, the status quo would have continued for many more years under the directionless leadership of the conservatives. Judge Roberts not only kept the ACA alive, he kept the dream of one day creating a successful American healthcare system alive, and for that I applaud him.