TPMDC Samuel Alito
Health Care
Supreme Court Justices Struggle With Health Policy And Key 'Obamacare' Facts
In weighing the constitutionality of the health care law's individual mandate, and possibly in deciding what to do with the rest of the law if they strike that provision, Supreme Court justices will have to confront key questions of health policy: What purpose does the mandate serve? How connected is it to other measures in the law? If those other measures must fall, too, what's left? And is that new, diminished law the sort of policy that Congress might have passed if the mandate had proved politically infeasible in the first place?
That's a troubling reality for reform supporters.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Antonin Scalia, Constitution, Donald Verrilli, HCR/SCOTUS, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Insurance, Samuel Alito, Supreme Court
Health Care
Alito, Breyer Call Out Obama Lawyer For Dubbing Mandate Both A 'Penalty' And 'Tax'
On the first day of health care reform arguments before the Supreme Court, two justices needled a top Obama lawyer for simultaneously calling the fine that will be paid under the law for not purchasing insurance a "penalty" and a "tax."
The confusion arises because of the administration's argument that the power to enforce the individual mandate is rooted in Congress' taxing power -- but that the mechanism itself is designed to be a penalty, not a revenue-generating policy.
The narrow but important distinction created a communication challenge for the lawyer representing the Obama administration.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Affordable Care Act, Antonin Scalia, Donald Verrilli, Elena Kagan, HCR/SCOTUS, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Samuel Alito, Stephen Breyer, Supreme Court
Supreme Court
Justices Skeptical That Health Care Mandate Is A 'Tax'
The Supreme Court kicked off oral arguments over President Obama's health care law Monday by dedicating 90 minutes to the one issue on which the White House and the Republican challengers agree: The justices should hand down a speedy ruling on the constitutionality of the law this summer, rather than punt it to 2015 or beyond.
Lawyers for the Obama Justice Department and for the 26 Republican-led states challenging the law agreed that an old statute called the Anti-Injunction Act -- which forbids people from challenging taxes in court unless they've already been assessed by the government -- does not apply in this case. The Supreme Court enlisted outside counsel to make the opposite case.
The justices appeared broadly skeptical that the law's fine imposed on Americans who fail to carry health insurance qualifies as a "tax."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Antonin Scalia, Barack Obama, Clarence Thomas, Constitution, Elena Kagan, HCR/SCOTUS, Health Care, Health care lawsuits, Individual Mandate, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Supreme Court
Senate Republicans
Republicans Poised To Filibuster Liu Nomination
Goodwin Liu
Republicans in the Senate are poised to block one of the youngest and most promising liberal legal minds from ascending to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit more than a year after President Obama appointed him.
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) Tuesday night filed a motion to limit debate on Liu's nomination. The motion requires 60 votes to pass, but Republicans are signaling strong opposition and may have enough votes to sink the motion and effectively filibuster the nomination when it comes to the floor Thursday.
Topics: Goodwin Liu, Samuel Alito, Senate Democrats, Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Republicans, Supreme Court
State Of The Union
Which Supreme Court Justices Are Skipping The SOTU?
Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia
The Supreme Court appears to be dividing 6-3 -- on whether the nine individual Justices are attending tonight's State of the Union address.
As you might recall, last year Justice Samuel Alito got into some controversy when he reflexively mouthed out the words "not true" in response to Obama's criticism of the Citizens United ruling, which overturned a variety of limits on corporate spending in political campaigns.
Several weeks later, Chief Justice John Roberts said he was "very troubled" by the whole environment of the State of the Union: "To the extent the State of the Union has degenerated into a political pep rally, I'm not sure why we are there."
And as it turns out, some of the conservatives justices won't be there this time, either -- a new practice for Alito himself, and a long-standing one for others. But interestingly enough, Roberts is still going.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, State Of The Union, Supreme Court
Roundup
TPMDC Sunday Roundup
Boehner: 'There Aren't That Many Places Where We Can Come Together'
Appearing on Meet The Press, House Minority Leader John Boehner downplayed the possibility of bipartisanship. "Listen, there aren't that many places where we can come together. The President-- is-- he was the most liberal member of the United States Senate. You don't get there by accident," said Boehner. "And if you look at the policies that we've seen over the course of this year from the Administration and -- his Democratic colleagues in Congress-- there are all these leftist proposals. And the people of Massachusetts, the people of Virginia, the people of New Jersey are sending a pretty loud signal, just like the other 47 states to -- to Washington, saying, 'Stop. This is -- this is way more than we ever want -- wanted Washington to do.'"
Gibbs: Health Care Reform 'Still Inside The Five-Yard Line'
Appearing on State of the Union, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that Democrats are "still inside the five-yard line" on health care reform. "We're one vote in the House of Representatives from making health care reform a reality," said Gibbs, though he was noncommittal on whether it was definite strategy to have the House of Representatives pass the Senate bill: "I don't think we know yet the answer on the process of this."
Topics: Barack Obama, David Axelrod, Eric Holder, Haley Barbour, Health Care, John Boehner, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Lamar Alexander, Robert Gibbs, Roundup, Samuel Alito, Scott Brown
Sonia Sotomayor
Flashback: Alito Knows A Thing Or Two About Empathy Also
On Wednesday, Glenn Greenwald posted a key part of the transcript of Justice Samuel Alito's 2006 confirmation hearing, which suggests that, just three and a half years ago, Republicans thought empathy was a pretty righteous quality in a Supreme Court nominee. Well, we've dug up the footage of that portion of the hearing and, as it turns out, he sells the empathy pretty well.
Now either Alito believed what he told the Judiciary Committee, or he believed that the then-Republican led panel wanted to hear that sentiment. But either way it makes the recent Republican insistence that Supreme Court nominees sit bereft of empathy on the bench a little bit hard to believe.
Earlier today, Greg Sargent dug up an old interview in Ladies Home Journal in which Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (a now-retired Reagan nominee) suggested that her experience as a woman impacted her jurisprudence.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court
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