I was primed today for the Obamacare Decision.  I made certain that I had no court hearings today, and my appointments were not starting until 10:00 AM.  Alas my third kidney stone decided to make its appearance at 7:00 AM.  By 9:00 AM I was suffering from truly memorable pain.  I stayed home from the law mines and had my secretary reschedule all my appointments except the 2:00 PM which was in the nature of an emergency.  Nursed by my wife, and my doctor who opened his office early for me, God bless him, I soon had in my system very strong painkillers and Flowmax.  By 1:30 PM I still felt like bayonets were probing my nether regions, but duty is duty and my wife drove me to my office for the 2:00 PM appointment.  By the end of it at 3:00 PM I was feeling semi-human, the pain killers and the Flowmax working their magic.

As for the Obamacare decision, a plain text copy of the decision may be read here, the majority opinion by Chief Justice Roberts is both brilliant and wrong.  His exposition of how th individual mandate violates the Commerce Clause is magnificent.  His transformation of the mandate into a tax was clever and wrong.  The idea that something is a tax if it is used as a penalty to compel behavior is imaginative and absurd.  Go here to read an examination of the decision shorn of legal gobbledygook.  Lost in the hubbub over this part of the decision is that Roberts had a majority of the court rule that states could refuse to take part in the Medicaid expansion, a key part of Obamacare, and that Congress could not punish them by taking away all their Medicaid money.  Go here to read an analysis of that portion of the decision. Continue reading →