THE ROBERTS DOCTRINE
There’s a reason no one expected this decision.
It’s because it makes no sense.
It’s not a rational view, it’s not consistent with any of the pleadings, it violates about 200 years of Supreme Court procedure.
And it sets the Constitution on its ear.
In a decision penned by the chief justice of the United States, the court has not only legislated, it has levied a tax. In support of an imperial presidency, it has become sovereign itself.
Precedent is abandoned, rule of law is ignored, jurisprudence is bastardized.
Obama wins and liberty loses.
The government is more powerful, the people are less free, and the Constitution is usurped.
Because the Supreme Court very oddly took an unexpected left turn. And to justify it, the chief justice produced a theory of law which had been raised by neither side, which strains credibility, and which unleashes a previously unimagined federal power.
The power to command a purchase, and to impose a punitive tax on those who fail to obey. Such penalties have previously been seen as fines, not taxes, but the chief justice declared them taxes and, with his liberal friends, imposed the biggest one in the history of the world.
Which plays fast and loose with Article 1 Section 7, which says all revenue bills must arise in the House of Representatives.
The people can only be taxed by the initiative of the most democratic portion of government.
Unless John Roberts decides to suspend the rules. In which case he and his liberal friends can do whatever the hell they want to.
Including redefine the concept of judicial review as understood since the days of Marbury v. Madison. In that landmark case from 210 years ago, the power of the federal courts to review the constitutionality of acts of Congress was established.
But after yesterday, that’s passé.
Gone are the days of judicial review, come now are the days of judicial rewrite. Instead of declaring a piece of legislation defective, the Supreme Court now takes to itself the power to correct it.
Why leave that matter to the people’s elected representatives when you have an all-knowing court to attend to it?
The chief justice declared that the individual mandate under the Commerce Clause was not constitutional. But, a tax imposed upon the same lines would be acceptable under the It’s None Of Your Damn Business Clause. So the Supreme Court rewrote the Obamacare law to delete the individual mandate and replace it with a corresponding tax.
Judicial review stops when you declare the individual mandate defective. Judicial rewrite begins when you replace it with something you like better.
Forget all that stuff you learned in elementary school about how a bill becomes a law. Under the Roberts Doctrine, the law is whatever five judgetards say it is. Forget the filibuster and the presidential signature, the chief justice has got it covered.
It’s like a plate umpire in baseball, calling balls and strikes. Only one day the pitcher throws the ball, you swing at it and miss, and a strike is called, and something very unusual happens.
The umpire steps out from behind the plate, stands behind you, moves your feet, fixes your crouch, adjusts your grip, tells you how to swing, and then orders the last pitch to be played over while he, holding your hands, swings and hits.
And scores it a homerun.
That’s what the Roberts Five did yesterday.
They cheated. And they did it to enlarge the power of the central government, to increase the tax burden of the American people, and diminish the freedom of the average citizen. You will pay more, choose less and have lower-quality health care. It’s the trifecta of oppression.
Obamacare is a monstrosity, a direct attack on the fundamental American notion of limited government. But its twin evil is a Supreme Court gone rogue, pulling legal arguments out of thin air to justify its capricious acts.
Yesterday was dangerous not so much for what it did, but for what it allows. It allows generations of future despots to claim newer and more sinister powers. History may well show that the assailant of liberty in this entire transaction was not Barack Obama, but John Roberts.
The fate of Obamacare will be determined, as it should be, by the people, at the ballot box in November. This election will be a referendum on Obamacare and the proper role of government. Those who favor Obamacare and a domineering central government will vote for Obama and the Democrats. Those who favor personal freedom and oppose Obamacare will vote for Romney and the Republicans.
Ultimately, the constitutional accountability of the ballot will determine the future of Obamacare.
But John Roberts and his confederates know no such accountability. The precedent of yesterday – the concept of judicial rewrite – and the notion that tax can be used as a punishment for those who fail to buy a government-mandated product, those judicial misdeeds will cast long shadows.
It was a decision no one saw coming.
Because it is illogical, unprecedented and un-American.
But it is the law of the land.
Thanks to John Roberts.
The dweeb who would be king.
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2012
