Friday, July 10, 2015

Silver Lining?

While I was shocked at the Supreme Court's upholding of SCOTUScare by insisting that the statutes couldn't possibly mean the actual states when they mention a state setting up an exchange, when it was clear that the intent was to pressure states to set up exchanges, I did hold out hope there was a silver lining.

George Will writes that the opinion is actually a potential check of executive power in favor of the legislature:

Roberts’s ruling advanced a crucial conservative objective, that of clawing back power from the executive branch and independent agencies that increasingly operate essentially free from congressional control and generally obedient to presidents. If conservatives cannot achieve their objectives, including ACA repeal, through the legislative branch, conservatism’s future is too bleak to be much diminished by anything courts do. If, however, conservatives can advance their agenda through Congress, they will benefit from Roberts’s ACA opinion, which buttresses legislative supremacy.

Perhaps. And I think he is right that the best remedy is legislative with a president who will sign the legislation rather than the courts.

But the hit on rule of law when words no longer have meaning apart from what is expedient at the moment is so disturbing that I can't get on board this as a subliminal victory.

But perhaps in time, perspective will change my view.