Originally Posted by
HoustonRaven
I wouldn't get too caught up in the questioning by the Justices.
If you read the transcript, they were pretty harsh to both sides, as they should be. The laughing was telling, but that line of questioning went to one of the four issues they are arguing. As much as Galen would like to spin this as only one issue being decided, the court is deciding four issues in this case:
1. Does the Commerce Clause grant Congress the power to require individuals to maintain a minimum level of health insurance or pay a tax penalty?
2. Did Congress exceed its enumerated powers and violate principles of federalism when it pressured States into accepting conditions that Congress could not impose directly by threatening to withhold all federal funding under Medicaid, the single largest grant-in-aid program?
3. Is the suit brought by respondents to challenge the minimum coverage provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act barred by the Anti-Injunction Act?
4. Is the individual mandate severable from the ACA?
For anyone to predict anything from the questioning thus far is premature. And I am not shocked that our resident uber Liberal would spin this to a one-topic question when the issue at hand is far more complex for him.