Could the Supreme Court decide the 2012 elections?
2012 Elections Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
BY ED MORRISSEY, HOT AIR
The working title for my column at The Week, which appeared late yesterday, wondered whether Barack Obama would have political severability from ObamaCare if the Supreme Court grabbed the case early and overturned the PPACA. The editors made a wise change, because the impact of an early review ahead of the appellate courts may very well impact the direction of the 2012 elections, and not just for Obama, either. If the Supreme Court gets to rule on the questions raised by district courts in Virginia and Florida before the elections, that has no political upside at all for Democrats — and a lot of downside:
An immediate grant of certiorari could mean a decision by this summer, while the trek through the appellate courts could postpone any final consideration of PPACA until 2013 or 2014, when the law comes fully into effect. Even if the Supreme Court waited until its next session to accept an expedited case, the decision would still come before the 2012 election. A Supreme Court ruling that supports the mandate still leaves President Obama and his Democratic allies with an unpopular bill under political siege in the Republican-controlled House, no worse or better off than before a final court ruling. Such a ruling might even provide more motivation to the opposition to gain control of the Senate and White House to reverse the PPACA entirely through legislative action.
An adverse ruling by the Supreme Court before the 2012 election would be an unequivocal disaster, however. President Obama and his fellow Democrats spent almost half of the 111th congressional session fiddling on health care while the economy burned, which destroyed their credibility in the midterm elections last fall. They insisted that their work would pass constitutional muster even as the mandate fueled the rise of the Tea Party and came to embody all of the arrogance and elitism of big-government, nanny-state. A ruling that overturns even just the mandate means that they tossed away their House majority and all of their political momentum for nothing.
To read more, visit: http://hotair.com/archives/2011/02/02/could-the-supreme-court-decide-the-2012-elections/
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Posted by bryanrudnick on Feb 3 2011. Filed under 2012 Elections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
