Obamacare Upheld

Well, The Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act as constitutional, so we can all now proceed to the elections in November with a sigh of relief. Opinion here.

The Opinion was surprisingly written, for the most part, by Chief Justice Roberts, joined in various parts by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Breyer and Ginsburg (the latter of who wrote the concurring opinion. Roberts opinion said:

The Affordable Care Act is constitutional in part and unconstitutional in part. The individual mandate cannot be upheld as an exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause. That Clause authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce, not to order individuals to engage in it. In this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without health insurance. Such legislation is within Congress’s power to tax.

I’m Embarrassed To Say I’m A Lawyer

Troy Davis was executed last night. All indications are that there is significant room for doubt as to his guilt. He was convicted solely on the basis of nine separate eyewitness testimonies, seven of which have retracted their testimony. Of the other two, one has remained completely silent since the trial, and the other is an odds-on favorite for the actual killer. This is what we knew, prior to injecting him with a life-taking chemical. If this is what we had known prior to his conviction, he would not have been convicted in a legal system that relies on a “reasonable doubt” standard. If there is no reasonable doubt in what we now know, then the words “reasonable” and “doubt” don’t mean what I learned in law school.

So That’s That

In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled in two cases involving the public display of the Ten Commandments. One of the cases involved two counties in Kentucky. The two counties in Kentucky attempted to modify their displays after the ruling, by adding part of the Declaration of Independence, the Mayflower Compact, the national motto, and other statements referring to God and the Bible, in an effort to dilute the religious impact of the displays, and in order to meet the guidelines set down by the Supreme Court for proper display of the Ten Commandments. If you remember, the display in Texas was allowed, but those in Kentucky were not.