It is obvious that John Roberts did some clever wordsmithing to reach the conclusion that the Individual Mandate was actually a tax, even though, under the law it was a penalty. I wondered why he would do that. Then I realized that the Roberts court decision is going to stop Obamacare in its tracks. Democrats are too busy celebrating to even realize what happened. What’s even more fun is that the White House has fallen completely into the fly trap.
Here is what the court actually decided, that really matters:
The court up held the TAX part of the individual mandate. They overruled the individual mandate under both the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause.
But the court also ruled that, although this was constitutional, as a tax, it was still treated under the law as a penalty. That is significant.
Here is what everyone is missing. As part of the ruling, all nine judges agreed that under the law this is a penalty, not a tax. That means that it falls OUTSIDE the Tax Anti-Injunction Act parameters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Anti-Injunction_Act
Impact
In the case of Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida , in which the the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was at issue, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the mandate imposed under that law, and also determined the applicability of the Anti-Injunction Act to the litigation over the law. The Court held that the individual mandate in that statute (codified in Internal Revenue Code section 5000A as a “penalty”) does not fall under the Anti-Injunction Act, on the rationale that Congress specifically labeled consequences of the mandate as a “penalty” rather than a “tax” whereas other portions of the Act were labeled as a “tax”. The Court also ruled that the nature of the mandate does not preclude the federal courts from hearing the case before a prospective plaintiff has paid such a penalty to the Internal Revenue Service in the year 2015. The Supreme Court decision was rendered in this case in an opinion filed with the case of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius in which the mandate was ultimately ruled to be constitutional as a tax.[4]
That is a death blow for Obamacare. One of the problems for people trying to stop the law was that under the Tax Anti-Injunction Act, lawsuits against the heath care law would have to be automatically set aside until the law is enforced and taxes are actually paid. With this ruling, affirmed by all nine judges, lawsuits can be filed immediately asking for an injunction against implementing the law.
In 1783, John Jay negotiated the Treaty of Paris with England.
At the time, many people thought he had betrayed the American Revolution, since the treaty favored Britain over France. France was our ally against Britain during the revolutionary war. Keep in mind that this was only two years after the defeat of the British at Yorktown and only 7 years after the signing the Declaration of Independence. People were outraged and if they could have caught him, they might have hanged him. They thought this was the worst possible outcome and they felt betrayed. But history shows us that John Jay probably saved the country. We would not have survived during our early years without the protection of the British fleet. We ended up going to war with Britain again, in 1812, but Jay had bought us 31 precious years. Jay knew that in order for the country to survive, we could not depend on France, but we could depend on Britain. Keep in mind that even if the trade laws were unfair, we still desperately needed that trade with Britain.
Today most historians view John Jay’s decision to negotiate that treaty as one of the bravest and smartest decisions in U.S. history. Fortunately, for him, he was able to avoid the hanging long enough for calmer heads to prevail.
Right now Republicans are furious with John Roberts. The real question is how will people feel about him five years from now? In the meantime, those opposed to Obamacare will quickly discover the additional ammunition provided by this decision. Those who support Obamacare are going to find themselves trying to pretend the biggest tax increase in American history isn’t really a tax increase after all.
A tax, by any other name, may be constitutional, but it doesn’t prevent injunctions. Brilliant!
TDM