SCOTUS Has Decided (probably)

The Supreme Court held its customary post hearing vote today, concerning Obamacare. The nine members met by themselves - no aides, no reporters, no recorders, etc. The members talk amongst themselves, then vote. After the vote, responsibilities for writing the opinions are dispensed. The next we will hear of it will probably be in June, when the decision is announced. The Court's custom is to not leak any details or hints of what that decision is prior to the public announcement. It will be interesting to see if they hold to that, given the enormity of this issue.

This vote is non-binding - a member can change their vote anytime prior to the public announcement. However, rarely does a vote change actually occur, if we are to believe what those 'in the know' describe as the history of the process.

The pundits have been all over the place over the past few days. Mainstream media have been in a panic since the first of three days of oral presentations. Obama's arguments and inability to defend the law have liberals pulling their hair out, predicting doom (for their side). Conservative pundits seem to be cautiously optomistic - questioning by 5 of the justices seemed to indicate they had severe doubts concerning the law.

We won't know one way or another for a couple of months.

What has been universally agreed upon by neutral and conservative pundits is that the 4 Democrat justices are lockstep in their support of Obama. No one is even trying to pretend that these 4 will actually look at the Constitutionality of the law and decide - which is all they are supposed to be doing. Some of the questioning that came out of Kagan and Ginsburg sounded like they were on the other side of the room, acting as lawyers arguing for the law.

The fact that Elena Kagan did not recuse herself is dispicable. She was Obama's Solicitor General (chief lawyer). She was part of the team that built Obamacare, she was seen publicly cheering its passage, she publicly praised it, and helped prepare legal defenses of it. For her to be sitting in judgement of it is a travesty. There is no way she would recuse herself, no way she would step aside and not guarantee Obama a vote in favor. I am not shocked she did this - after all, liberals believe anything justifies what they want, no matter how illegal or immoral. I am shocked that we haven't heard more about this. I guarantee that this point will be discussed a whole lot if SCOTUS rules in favor of Obamacare (especially if the decision is 5-4). It will be a point discussed by consitutional and Supreme Court experts for many years to come.

It's going to be a nervous couple of months, waiting for a decision that is fundamentally going to affect how much power the Federal Government has over its citizens. It is truly amazing that something that will affect each and every American (and all of those illegals) is going to be decided by such a small group. (In actuality, it is going to be decided by only one or two of them).

Stunning that we've gotten to this point. I wonder what the Founding Fathers would think, if they could see us now.