Chief Justice John Roberts Bowed To Political Pressure And Changed His Vote On Obamacare

It is being reported that after oral arguments were finished back in March, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was planning to join with the other conservative justices in ruling that the individual mandate in Obamacare was unconstitutional.  But something changed.  According to Jan Crawford of CBS News, two sources with “specific knowledge” of the deliberations at the Supreme Court told her that at some point Roberts switched his position and decided to uphold Obamacare.  Roberts decided to characterize the penalty for not complying with the individual mandate as a tax.  This argument had been rejected by the lower courts and supporters of Obamacare had considered that argument to be essentially a legal “Hail Mary” with almost no chance of success.  But this is how the legal system in America works.  Judges decide what they want the result of a case to be, and then they try to figure out a way to justify it under the Constitution and under existing law.  Often, judges will go through all sorts of mental gymnastics to get to the results that they want.  Most Americans would be absolutely shocked if they truly realized what goes on behind closed doors in our legal system. (Read More...)