Chief Justice Roberts 'Threading A Needle'

.
Analysts were totally stunned as Chief Justice Roberts began reading the majority opinion and spoke of the unconstitutionality of the individual mandate and the Commerce Law. CNN put up a news headline that Obamacare was struck down by the Court. Then Roberts came forward with the tax line in support of upholding ACA. The Conservatives in the room dropped their jaws to the floor in utter disbelief. A great day for the individual citizen and why can’t the US compete with the major European nations who have had a National Health coverage for ages.

I wonder how the legal interpretation on the tax issue can be decided by a 5-4 vote. Embarrasing really on the differing opinions. Somewhere I could understand that Chief Justice Roberts took responsibility to qualify ACA as being constitutional in view of the welfare of US citizens. I personally consider affordable health care nothing less than a human right. How dare do Republicans speak of pro-life when thousands die every year due to a lack of medical care.

Obama: A victory for all Americans (VIDEO)

The Atlantic: ‘Looks Like a Tax’: A Simple Guide to Today’s Historic Supreme Court Ruling

We’ve given you today’s blockbuster decision in one paragraph and 193 pages. Here’s your Goldilocks analysis — a straightforward explanation of why the law survived.

Halfway down the second page of the Supreme Court’s decision on National Federation of Independent Business et al v. Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services — a.k.a.: the case to decide the fate of health care reform — there is a very important sentence:

“CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS concluded in Part III-A that the individual mandate is not a valid exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause.”

With that, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court dashed to pieces the administration’s main argument for the individual mandate — that it was protected under the Constitution’s power to regulate business. But the ruling didn’t end there. Halfway down the third page of the decision, there is an even more important sentence:

“CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS concluded that the individual mandate must be construed as imposing a tax on those who do not have health insurance.”

And so, this is the way health care reform survives. Not as a mandate. But as a tax.

*

In the end, four justices voted to strike down the entire health care law. Four justices deemed it appropriate under the commerce clause. And, in the middle, Chief Justice John Roberts concluded that the entire health care law could live because the mandate in question can be legally justified under Congress’s power to tax.

Live blog of opinions