Last day for oral argument this session is April 29, and they’re already booked into early March. Respondents have at least another 30 days to file their response brief, Petitioners get another 14 days to file a reply, then the case gets set for conference and a vote on whether to take up the petition. That gets you into late February at the earliest, more likely sometime in March (or later – extensions get requested and granted all the time). For reference, last year’s census case was totally fast-tracked to get it heard at the end of the 2018-19 term, and that cert. petition was granted on February 15. No other case heard that final week of arguments in April was granted later than January 11.
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an ongoing threat to the orderly operation of healthcare markets
Whatever will pharma do if it can’t buy every commercial cluster on television to push drugs. They’ve got money to spend, and more is pouring in.
Hurry! Free them to raise deductibles!
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Given the importance of the issue, I think they’ll do it this term.
They are not stupid.
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Given the importance of the issue, I think the four liberal justices could well vote to grant review. But it takes five votes to grant a motion to expedite anything, they don’t control the Court’s calendar, and none of the five conservatives is going to want to risk blowing Trump’s re-election campaign (and maybe eventually imperiling their majority) by either killing or saving the ACA before the election.
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I really, really respect the political and legal move behind this. It only takes 4 votes for cert, and the 5th Circuit is very “politically” trying to help out the republicans by slow walking this past 2020. But this puts the issue front and center and will make republican squirm. The Supreme Court will do what it is going to do, and best to have it NOW not after 2020. If they want to gut Obama Care, so be it, it will destroy the republican party for multiple generations and provide a good insurance policy that Trump goes down big time.
Everyone knows this, and it only takes 4 votes - which the Democrats have on the Court - to take Cert, which short circuits the 5th Circuits political games, and forces the issue. Roberts can decide to expidite, failing to do so will look even more political. The reality is that having this issue hanging over 2020 is perhaps even better than a decission (which I think would be 5-4 to uphold Obamacare).
Some risk, but if they are going to Gut Obamacare, do it now, while the voters get some imput.
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I doubt that Roberts wants to be seen as helping Trump get reelected—even if that is what he actually wants to have happen.
He’s a preening peacock when it comes to his reputation and legacy. Those things mean more to him than a second Trump term.
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No, but they are Republicans.
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Possibly. But I would bet exactly 0 dollars on it.
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This is also yet another opportunity for Pelosi to stick it to moscow mitch and that jerk in the white house. Set the penalty to $1 and the case becomes moot. But mitch wouldn’t allow such a bill to pass, even if it mean shutting down the government to do it, and trump wouldn’t sign it, ditto. (And since it’s a revenue-related item, it can go in the budget under reconciliation…)
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Does this make you wonder how Medicare for All, if it were ever to become law, would ever survive a judiciary challenge given the enormous power the Republicans hold in the judiciary and how long it would take to retake the judiciary given that judges typically have lifelong appointments.
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But they are willfully ignorant.
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Dems need to tee up the impeachments for lying judges and completely unqualified. That would get rid of at least half of the Repub appointments.
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I don’t see how the Democrats will ever be able to get two-thirds majority of the Senate to impeach Federal judges.
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Probably wishful thinking on my part but I wouldn’t necessarily bet he does want Trump to get reelected.
When I hear judges speak of the importance of the judiciary the way Roberts does I’m reminded of another particular judge who was quite politically conservative but was appalled at Bush’s actions in the early 2000s. I heard him give a speech around that time and it went deeper than just this particular case.
—John Gibbons, who was the lead lawyer on the case that got Guantanamo Bay detainees the right to legal representation. Nominated by Nixon to the Third Circuit …
He basically said that a substantial number of judges thought Bush was running amok and that Congress was deserting their obligation to stop him, but that he hoped the judiciary (despite its resistance to doing so) would eventually block him.
So my wishful thinking would be that certain sorts of conservatives (and more likely in the judiciary than elsewhere) would not actually be that fond of Trump.
Gibbons obituary in the Times
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Then have the DOJ investigate them and try them for perjury or whatever else shows up and then impeach them. Do some real investigations and go after them starting with the worst of the worst. Then when appointing Dems, only appoint young people in good health who will last a lifetime.
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That should be in big, bold capitals. Sparklers stuck on top with buffoonish theme music. Basic message.
.
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But, but the big fat prevaricator promised a better, cheaper health care plan that covers everybody; that was about four years ago, and he has yet to keep his word.
How is anybody ever going to have any respect for a so-called president whose word is entirely worthless? Shows you what a lowlife con artist The Donald truly is.
How pathetic can one “f**king moron” be?
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Ahh, the many plans that were always “basically done” or just around the corner.
The Democratic House could certainly get a new health insurance plan passed between now and the election if needed.
The GOP never came close, because their ideology isn’t compatible with the reality of health insurance: it is far too expensive for tens of millions of people to afford; and if you let insurance companies pick their customers, tens of millions of people would not find any company willing to insure them. The best the GOP managed to do was to allow junk insurance policies that offer low prices for nearly worthless coverage
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Poison pills that will punish the Federalist Society’s overlords. Write the legislation so that if any portion of it is held to be unconstitutional or otherwise invalid, capital gains tax rate goes up to 50%, top marginal tax rate goes to 45%, and estate tax goes to 100% on all estates over $5 million. Lo and behold, M4A will be deemed entirely valid and constitutional.
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The Court will vote 5-4 to kill ACA.
Watch Kavanaugh write the opinion that people should do a GoFundMe for medical expenses or use a “Christian” scam like “Medi-Share”!
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