All anyone wants to talk about today is the Supreme Court’s health care ruling. This is certainly understandable given the scope and magnitude of the law, as well as the bonkers fallout that has taken place since it was upheld. So, even though there is actual television news out there, I feel it might be worthwhile to take a moment to discuss it here.
As I’ve pointed out on many, many, many occasions, I went to law school and passed the bar exam, so I’m familiar with all the fancy schmancy legalese that got thrown around today. But a dry explanation of all the ins and outs of the Constitution would be boring as all hell, both for you to read and for me to write, so I am not going to do that. Instead, inspired equally by Buzzfeed’s post using GIFs from “The Simpsons” and the fact that I stumbled across a Tumblr full of GIFs from “The O.C.” a few days ago, here is a very basic explanation of the whole situation interspersed with pretty moving pictures from the Fox teen drama.
The Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Obama in March 2010, expanding access to health care to all U.S. citizens. When the bill passed, Democrats were all…
… but Republicans all opposed it, so they were like…
Almost immediately, a number of states filed lawsuits challenging the Constitutionality of the Act, especially when it came to one particular provision: the “individual mandate.” They based their argument on the theory that the Constitution allows Congress to “regulate” commerce (via the Commerce Clause), but not to require an individual action like the purchase of insurance. The lawsuits worked their way through the court system until they reached the Supreme Court. While no one knew exactly how the court would rule, the prevailing wisdom going into today was that the court’s five traditionally conservative justices would vote to strike down all or part of the Act, specifically the individual mandate. But when the ruling was announced this morning, it turned out that John Roberts, the Chief Justice and one of the conservative members of the Court, had gone all…
.. and ruled that — while the Act WAS an overreach related to the Commerce Clause — it could be upheld because the penalty attached to the mandate (which states that anyone who doesn’t purchase insurance is essentially subject to a fine) amounted to a tax, and Congress DOES have the authority to lay and collect taxes. At first, everyone was like…
… because they thought if anyone was going to side with the four more liberal members of the Court it would be Justice Kennedy, who has done that here and there on certain issues. The fact that it was Chief Justice Roberts kind of blew people away. Once it started to sink in, however, people who supported the law were all…
… and…
… but everyone who opposed it was like…
… and…
… and everyone I follow on Twitter was all…
And that pretty much brings us up to date. There’s still a lot that can happen, mind you. Republicans have vowed to repeal the Act if they can win the presidency and a majority in Congress in the upcoming election, so this election cycle could get especially ugly on both sides. I assure you I am very much not looking forward to this. Politics are the worst.
In conclusion, I know this site’s readership falls all over the political spectrum, and therefore this post may lead to a heated debate in the comments. That’s fine. The First Amendment allows you to air out whatever view on the subject you want, and it also allows your opponents to air out theirs. Whatever the result of the conversation, I’ll just leave you with this:
Thank you for your time.
