I’m currently on only the second real vacation that I’ve taken since my son was born five years ago, so it’s not a great time for me to be giving my opinion on things like free trade and important Supreme Court decisions. And I already told you that all the ink spilled (or electrons spent) on what would happen if the administration lost in King v. Burwell was wasted because it was never going to happen.
Well, I was right. The Court ruled six to three, quite predictably in my opinion, that the whole health insurance industry could not be put to the torch over some clerical sloppiness in the wording of the law.
If we’ve learned anything from this decision it is just how incredibly partisan the trio of Scalia, Alito, and Thomas are. They are truly radical, and Roberts and Kennedy go along with them much of the time. In fact, Roberts sided with these lunatics in another case announced this morning: Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project. Fortunately, Justice Kennedy didn’t go along and there is still some hope that people can get some justice if they discover that they’ve been discriminated against in seeking housing.
The justices ruled 5-4 that federal housing laws prohibit seemingly neutral practices that harm minorities, even without proof of intentional discrimination. The case involved an appeal from Texas officials accused of violating the Fair Housing Act by awarding federal tax credits in a way that kept low-income housing out of white neighborhoods.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, often a swing vote, joined the court’s four liberal members in upholding the use of so-called “disparate impact” cases.
The Supreme Court is extremely conservative, but they still have one foot grounded in reality. That could easily change if just one more movement conservative is appointed to the Court.
