Here's the thing...away from the partisan crap. This WAS a win for conservatives in one sense, actually, several ways, but NOT in the way the lefty loons are babbling about. The SC ruled that it was unconstitutional for a government to FORCE people to buy anything under the guise of the commerce clause. And there have been quite literally DOZENS of examples of the abuse of that clause over the last 50 years that will now be re examined and OVERTURNED!!!!
So, the ruling WAS a step toward reclaiming our constitution to it's foundings!
However, Roberts made a critical error or maybe a shrewd legal maneuver in his opinion about congress power to tax on a couple of areas that just can't be overlooked and WILL come up again!
First, in his writings he RIGHTLY states in the first part of his opinion where they strike down the individual mandates on the grounds of the commerce clause OR the other argument which escapes me right now, that it was NOT the place of the SC to make judgments on the intent of Congress. Yet when he made his opinion that the individual mandate can be upheld on the grounds that Congress has the power to lay taxes, he is doing JUST THAT!
Why is that? Because NO WHERE...not one place in that 2700 page monster...that has ALREADY generated more than 110,000 pages of new regulations...do the words tax or tariff appear. NO WHERE...not once.
So, in order for Roberts to reach a decision that it COULD be upheld on power to tax...he had to make a judgment on the INTENT of Congress when all along they've been saying it WAS NOT a tax.
WHY would he do that?
The second problem is the seeming hypocrisy of striking down the Medicaid provision that said the fed would withhold funding from states that didn't spend the money the way the fed dictated...a punitive action and another win for conservatives by the way...but allows that it IS constitutional for Congress to enact a tax on individuals within those states!
You are WRONG Judge Roberts and I suspect you know that's wrong. The people of the states not only have the same rights as the states...but even MORE rights and protections than the federal or state governments. If the fed can't act punitively against the states...the states citizens are out of bounds too!
This country was founded on EQUAL. Equal rights, equal justice, equal protections under the law. To say that the Congress can assign and arbitrary punitive tax against selected individual citizens for ANYTHING is UNCONSTITUTIONAL and WILL be challenged in the SC!!!
I suspect Roberts knows that and this was a way of getting around the fact that until someone is actually taxed...they could NOT rule on that portion since no one filing the case had standing for them to rule. So...Congress's power to tax had to be upheld...for the time being.
TRUST ME...this law WILL be struck down in it's entirety!!!