by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
Until last week, Chief Justice John Roberts was vilified as the leader of a conservative judicial cabal poised to destroy the Obama presidency by overturning the federal takeover of healthcare. But with his unexpected affirmation, Roberts suddenly was lauded as the new Earl Warren \u2014 an \u201cevolving\u201d conservative who at last saw the logic of liberal big government.<\/p>\n
Among our elites \u2014 journalists, pundits, and academics \u2014 liberal Supreme Court justices are always deemed \u201copen-minded,\u201d even as they are expected to vote in absolute lockstep liberal fashion. In contrast, a conservative justice is written off as reactionary or blatantly partisan when he likewise predictably follows his own orthodoxy \u2014 pressures that may well have affected Roberts if reports of an eleventh-hour switch in his vote are true.<\/p>\n
No surprise, then, that a surreal discussion followed the recent ruling of the high court. Our legal establishment expected that the four liberal judges would not deviate one iota in their affirmation of the healthcare law, even as it hoped that a conservative or two would show judicial character by joining the liberals.<\/p>\n
Democrats like activist federal courts to overturn \u2014 in matters of gay marriage, abortion, affirmative action, and illegal immigration \u2014 ballot propositions and majority votes of legislatures fostered by supposedly illiberal and unsophisticated voters. But on healthcare, liberals \u2014 led by the president \u2014 made the argument that a wrongly activist Supreme Court should not dare to tamper with what an elected Congress had wrought.<\/p>\n
President Obama was incoherent in his commentary on the Supreme Court. Before the Roberts ruling, when most were betting that the president\u2019s healthcare plan would be overturned \u2014 especially given the poor performance of Solicitor General Donald Verrilli in arguing the government\u2019s case before the Court \u2014 Obama was angry at the thought of such judicial activism. In a manner that did not reflect much knowledge of either the Constitution or the history of the republic, he thundered, \u201cUltimately, I\u2019m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, the Supreme Court\u2019s overturning of a law is not extraordinary or unprecedented. And the president\u2019s bill did not pass by a \u201cstrong majority,\u201d but squeaked through the House by seven votes. What was \u201cunprecedented\u201d was a presidential shot across the bow of the Supreme Court on the eve of a critical decision \u2014 especially given the fact that Obama would soon welcome the Court\u2019s activism in overturning most of a duly-passed Arizona immigration law that sought to enforce federal statutes.<\/p>\n
To get the healthcare bill passed in the first place, the Obama administration swore that it was a mandate and not a tax raise, which would have contradicted his campaign pledge not to hike taxes on the middle class. Yet Verrilli worried that a mandate would be declared unconstitutional, so he argued in the chambers of the Court that it was a tax \u2014 and a majority of justices agreed.<\/p>\n
But then the Obama administration flipped again at the thought of raising taxes on the middle class and is now calling the mandate\/tax a \u201cpenalty\u201d \u2014 thanking the Court for its wisdom while rebuking the means by which it came to it.<\/p>\n
Conservatives have come to distrust federal courts that overturn legislative majorities. But this time, conservatives hoped that the Roberts Supreme Court would overturn Obamacare rather than the less likely scenario of a Republican president and a congressional majority in both houses doing it sometime in the future. In short, there is no such thing as consistent judicial activism or restraint \u2014 only court rulings that support a favored political agenda and then are scorned as activist or lauded as enlightened by the particular involved parties.<\/p>\n
A big reason for all the hypocrisies and paradoxes is that the 2,409-page healthcare act is a mess. Even its creators cannot agree whether it involves a mandate, tax, or penalty. The public doesn\u2019t like or want it \u2014 at least the parts it must soon pay for. It was passed only on a strictly partisan vote and under shady means (Remember the \u201cCornhusker Kickback\u201d?). Hundreds of friends of influential Democratic politicians have already had their companies exempted from what was sold as a wonderful change. The country is nearly insolvent and $16 trillion in debt, and yet poised to take on the largest social-entitlement program in a half-century.<\/p>\n
This mess is only the beginning, since we won\u2019t even feel the full effect (or cost) of the law for another two years. But we should assume that what starts out this badly will end even worse.<\/p>\n
\u00a92012 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Until last week, Chief Justice John Roberts was vilified as the leader of a conservative judicial cabal poised to destroy the Obama presidency by overturning the federal takeover of healthcare. But with his unexpected affirmation, Roberts suddenly was lauded as the new Earl Warren \u2014 an \u201cevolving\u201d conservative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[146,187,278],"tags":[190,132,12,274,1064,268,1031,40,277],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-az","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11279,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ten-commandments-of-the-supreme-court\/","url_meta":{"origin":655,"position":0},"title":"Ten Commandments of the Supreme Court","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review What is sacrosanct? Whatever advances progressive causes. 1)\u00a0Right to Left.\u00a0The majority of post-war Republican Supreme Court nominees, who were initially perceived as conservative, turned liberal on the bench (Harry Blackmun, William Brennan, David Souter, John Paul Stevens, Earl Warren), or went from right-wing to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Supreme Court"","block_context":{"text":"Supreme Court","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/supreme-court\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":658,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/good-news-what-good-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":655,"position":1},"title":"Good News–What Good News?","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media I\u00a0have a confession to make: I don\u2019t quite understand the jubilation among the conservative-Republican forces during the last two months of the Obama crack-up, and here, unfortunately, is why: 1.\u00a0The so-called Obama crash. I believe that Obamism \u2014\u00a041 months over 8% plus unemployment\u00a0[1], anemic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "America's Future"","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1511,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-new-take-on-partisanship\/","url_meta":{"origin":655,"position":2},"title":"Obama’s New Take on Partisanship","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online One of President Obama\u2019s strangest complaints is that there are too many in Congress who act, well, like former senator Obama. In his recent speech on the question of comprehensive immigration reform, President Obama once again blasted Republican political opportunism that opposes his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2010"","block_context":{"text":"July 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/july-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8723,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/are-sanctuary-cities-the-new-confederates\/","url_meta":{"origin":655,"position":3},"title":"Are Sanctuary Cities the New Confederates?","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online There are now 340 sanctuary cities in the United States \u2014 and the list is growing. All of them choose to ignore federal immigration law by refusing to report detained undocumented immigrants to federal authorities under most circumstances. Partly as a result, deportations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/california\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via media@limitgov.org","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Kate-law-needed-to-end-sanctuary-cities-500x388.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1893,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/conservative-felonies-liberal-misdemeanors\/","url_meta":{"origin":655,"position":4},"title":"Conservative Felonies, Liberal Misdemeanors","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Why in matters of stupid behavior do liberals and Democrats often get second and third chances from the media and general public not accorded to their conservative and Republican counterparts? We're seeing it now in the national reaction to Senate Majority Leader Harry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2010"","block_context":{"text":"January 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/january-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10229,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-nightmares-and-the-realities-of-never-trump\/","url_meta":{"origin":655,"position":5},"title":"The Nightmares and the Realities of Never Trump","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson American Greatness Rarely in the last half-century have so many elite conservatives and intellectuals been so estranged both from a Republican administration and from those who voted for it\u2014neither have they become so animated in their antipathy and disgust for a sitting president. During the 2016\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "McMaster"","block_context":{"text":"McMaster","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/mcmaster\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5754,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions\/5754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}