While it will be a while before we hear the decision reached by the Supreme Court on the Affordable Care Act (and I'm not holding my breath for a happy ending to this movie), what worries me the most is that somehow we'll end up going back to the idea that the best way to cure the spiraling costs of healthcare and the lack of coverage for millions of Americans is to...turn it over to the private sector.
So they can fix it...like they fixed the housing industry. And the banking industry. And the oil industry. And the cable television industry. And the auto industry...oops, the federal government fixed that one. And the communications industry. And the media industry. And the...
You get my drift.
I don't give a flying fuck what the Supreme Court thinks. As we saw with Citizen's United, the Supreme Court is no longer a bastion of justice for the American people. It's a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America and, by extension, the republican party.
Hold on to your wallets and start looking for an apothecary....
Peace,
emaycee
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Fuck me if I didn't just spend 20 minutes writing a comment only to accidentally fuck it up and have it deleted. So I'll try again.
ReplyDeleteI have wanted to write an actual blog post about this from my cynical legal perspective, but alas, I only have time to read Supreme Court opinions assigned to me.
I can't tell you how many Supreme Court opinions I have read. I can tell you that I have read opinions from the dawn of American all the way to opinions from this term. And I can honestly say that I don't know that the Supreme Court was ever "a bastion of justice for the American people."
I also don't know that the Supreme Court is "a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America and, by extension, the republican party." I don't know that I can say with any certainty that it isn't.
I can say this: Chief Justice Hughes once said, "We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our liberty and of our property under the Constitution." I only think he's half right, we do live under a Constitution, and that is certainly whatever the hell the judges say it is.
If you were to read Commerce Clause cases, and I have read many, you'd see that it has been broadened, narrowed, broadened again, and narrowed again. All of these have been done over and over. I know that as I read it, Congress certainly had the authority to do what they did. I know that enough of the current Justices have basically said as much in prior opinions (including Scalia) to uphold this law. Will they do that this time? Fuck if I know.
I do know that judges decide issues with the rule of law and the Constitution in mind, but they do get to determine what those are. I do not believe for one second that their biases and beliefs do not play a factor. And I know that you can create a strong legal argument to support your belief, no matter what that is.
I know that nine people will decide what the Constitution is with regard to healthcare. I know what I think they should do based on precedent, and what they could do based on the constitutional text (and Thomas will stick to that, I assure you). Whether right or wrong, whether there is a better system to do so, the Constitution is what judges say it is. It has been that way for quite some time, it will likely always be that way, but it is not always about justice for the American people. See, Dred Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson.
Admittedly, those cases were eventually overturned. However, that took time. That took effort on behalf of the public to change minds. Sadly, we can't always rely on the Supreme Court to provide justice. They get to say what the Constitution is, and if not now, I hope over time we can convince them that it was a document written to provide justice.