Hurray for this...
Justice Sotomayor May Have Just Saved Obamacare
Justice Sonia Sotomayor proved herself to be every much as clever a law student as ever in
hearing the arguments over the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. In his arguments against the law, attorney Michael Carvin presented the argument that the citizens of the states who opted not to set up the exchanges should not have access to the tax subsidies associated with those exchanges. His exchange became so energetic that NPR’s Nina Totenberg said he argued with “
red-faced passion.” And then he had his entire argument collapse before him when the F word appeared.
Federalism.
Justice Sotomayor tore his argument apart with only a few choice words, but powerful words they were.
If we read it the way you’re saying, then we’re going to read the statute as intruding on the federal-state relationship, because then the states are going to be coerced into establishing their own exchanges.
So, let’s review. If the court were to accept the plaintiff’s argument on the case, then they would need to effectively strip away the states autonomy and independence from the federal, as the ACA did enable states to opt in, or out, of having the federal government handle their exchanges for them.
Not finished, Justice Sotomayor described his arguments as creating a death spiral, which would cause the entire system to collapse in upon itself. She even cited the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling on the ACA, discussing the Medicaid eligibility requirements. In closing, she effectively left his argument in shreds before her, she then put the usual conservative, states-rights judges in the corner.
snip --------------
The conservative justices seemed to be trying to come up with any alternative solution. Justice Alito floated the idea of a stay of judgement to enable Congress to correct the bill, leaving it as/is on a technicality but with the judicial order to rework the troublesome provisions. Scalia regularly interrupted Mr. Calvin’s arguments, pointing out at one point, that “If interpreting it one way is unconstitutional, you interpret it the other way.”
In short, Michael Carvin walked out of that courtroom already a loser.
Now, it may have a surprise ending, but if the legal experts are right, and they usually are, the
case is over.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/03/07/sotomayor-saves-obamacare/