Be careful what you wish for

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide possibly today that it will take up the Florida case opposing national health care reform—the Affordable Care Act or as it is now commonly called “Obamacare”.   Everyone expects that that the Court will rule in 2012 whether the individual mandate for almost every American to purchase health insurance is constitutional. 

The opponents of the law have been clamoring for the Supreme Court to rule as quickly as possible that the mandate is unconstitutional in hopes that Congress will then have to kill off the whole healthcare law or at least make the issue the center piece of the 2012 elections.  But now that they are going to get the first part of their wish, legal analysis of a recent District Court ruling indicates that they might not get the second part. 

Bruce Brown writes in The New Republic that the D.C. Circuit Court opinion “provides the most authoritative, truly conservative defense of the Act thus far, a defense that should buttress the legal position of the Obamba administration before the Supreme Court next year.”

The worry of the opponents is that their favorite conservative Justices won’t share their partisan spirit in their decision.   If that happens, the Republican Presidential candidate won’t be able to claim that because part of the law is unconstitutional then it must be rescinded or that the election should be about nominating more conservative Justices. 

I can’t wait to hear what the new spin will be.