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Can SCOTUS health ruling sink tea party?
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| Contributor | Brandonius Maximus |
| Last Edited | Brandonius Maximus Nov 10, 2011 04:02pm |
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| Category | Speculative |
| Author | ELIZABETH B. WYDRA |
| News Date | Thursday, November 10, 2011 10:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Of all the possible outcomes being tossed around as the Affordable Care Act litigation heads for Supreme Court consideration, one is usually overlooked: If the court upholds the act’s constitutionality and its “individual mandate,” it could sound the death knell for the tea party.
The challenges to the mandate are perhaps the most concrete manifestation of the tea party’s vision of the Constitution and the role of government. The tea party has made its name by promoting a constitutional vision of a weak central government, incapable of addressing national issues — like the health care crisis, environmental protection and financial system reform — and this theory is at the heart of the lawsuits challenging the mandate. Progressives have long argued that the tea party’s vision has more to do with the failed Articles of Confederation than our enduring Constitution.
But what if this message were delivered by the conservative Roberts Court in a high-profile defeat for the tea party in the health care litigation?
There is a distinct possibility that the high court could uphold the health care law’s constitutionality, not just with a 5-4 ruling — in which swing-vote Justice Anthony Kennedy sides with the court’s more liberal members — but with the support of conservative heroes, like Justice Antonin Scalia and Chief Justice John Roberts. |
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