From CBS: Chief Justice John Roberts initially sided with the Supreme Court's
four conservative justices to strike down the heart of President Obama's
health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, but later changed his
position and formed an alliance with liberals to uphold the bulk of the
law, according to two sources with specific knowledge of the
deliberations.
Roberts then withstood a month-long, desperate
campaign to bring him back to his original position, the sources said.
Ironically, Justice Anthony Kennedy - believed by many conservatives to
be the justice most likely to defect and vote for the law - led the
effort to try to bring Roberts back to the fold.
"He was relentless," one source said of Kennedy's efforts. "He was very engaged in this."
But
this time, Roberts held firm. And so the conservatives handed him their
own message which, as one justice put it, essentially translated into,
"You're on your own."
The conservatives refused to join any
aspect of his opinion, including sections with which they agreed, such
as his analysis imposing limits on Congress' power under the Commerce
Clause, the sources said.
Roberts then withstood a month-long, desperate campaign to bring him
back to his original position, the sources said. Ironically, Justice
Anthony Kennedy - believed by many conservatives to be the justice most
likely to defect and vote for the law - led the effort to try to bring
Roberts back to the fold.
"He was relentless," one source said of Kennedy's efforts. "He was very engaged in this."
But
this time, Roberts held firm. And so the conservatives handed him their
own message which, as one justice put it, essentially translated into,
"You're on your own."
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57464549/roberts-switched-views-to-uphold-health-care-law/
I think, with this vote, Roberts will lose control of the Supreme Court. the liberals will always dislike him and his views and the conservatives felt like a knife was stuck in their back by Roberts, and then the knife was used to cut out the hearts of the conservative justices. The conservatives on the courts will never trust Roberts again.
I think Roberts voted the way he did was to protect his image and to protect Roberts and his family from the liberal hate machine.
It used to be that the Supreme Court was pretty much immune from politics once the justices were nominated and approved to the bench.
When the campaign finance law that said that corporations could donate large amount of money to campaigns, was constitutional, President Obama who hated the ruling,, in the following State of the Union speech ripped into the court, something that has not been done in the past. Samuel Alito was seen saying and shaking his head "no". Alito was ripped for this.
We have also seen how dangerous liberals can be when they don't like someone. Just look at Wisconsin when liberals threatened to kill Gov. Scott Walker, acted violently in restaurants and other places and compared individual conservatives to Hitler. Roberts saw this and he probably thought he didn't want to go through the liberal and Obama slime/hate/violent machines.
He also saw what has happened in the Wisconsin Supreme Court where a liberal justice attacked a conservative justice and then claimed she was the victim. While the male justice in Wisconsin did nothing wrong, he was slandered by the media and liberals in Wisconsin and the country. The Supreme Court is totally out of control in Wisconsin and Roberts would rather have the conservatives hate him than the liberals because the conservatives are just too nice.
That is why I think Roberts voted the way he did. He wanted to avoid conflict but in the end he will have more conflict in his professional life than he ever dreamed of.
No comments:
Post a Comment