More than one way to skin a Cat...

Brilliant

Long read, but worth it

Interesting, if it all falls together.

More than one way to skin a Cat...

Dear Friends,

Attached is my optimist’s analysis of the Supreme Court’s decision today.

Please let me know what you think. Also please feel free to post this on your

website or blog if you are so inclined. I have also pasted it below.

Very Truly Yours,

Richard Bolen

The Bolen Law Firm

600 Columbia Avenue,
  Suite 7

Lexington, SC 29072

(803)951-2230

(803)951-2328 (fax)

@RichBolen -Twitter

June 28, 2012

Lexington, South Carolina

To all my friends, particularly those conservatives who are despondent over the searing betrayal by Chief Justice John Roberts and the pending demise of our beloved country, I offer this perspective to convey  

some profound hope and evidence of the Almighty’s hand in the affairs of men in

relation to the Supreme Court’s decision on Obamacare. 

  

I initially thought we had cause for despondency when I only heard the results

of the decision and not the reason or the make-up of the sides.  I have now read a large portion of the decision and I

believe that it was precisely the result that Scalia, Alito, Thomas, Roberts

and even Kennedy wanted and not a defeat for conservatism or the rule of law.

I believe the conservatives on the court have run circles around the liberals

and demonstrated that the libs are patently unqualified to be on the Supreme

Court.  Let me explain.

  

First let me assure you that John Roberts is a conservative and he is not dumb,

mentally unstable, diabolical, a turncoat, a Souter or even just trying to be

too nice.  He is a genius along with the members of the Court in the

dissent.  The more of the decision I read the more remarkable it

became.  It is not obvious and it requires a passable understanding of

Constitutional law but if it is explained anyone can see the beauty of it.

  

The decision was going to be a 5-4 decision no matter what, so the allegation

that the decision was a partisan political decision was going to be made by the

losing side and their supporters.  If the bill was struck down completely

with Roberts on the other side there would have been a national and media

backlash against conservatives and probably strong motivation for Obama

supporters to come out and vote in November.  With today’s decision that

dynamic is reversed and there is a groundswell of support for Romney and

Republicans, even for people who were formerly lukewarm toward Romney before

today, additionally Romney raised more than 3 million dollars today.

  

Next, merely striking the law without the support of Democrats and libs would

have left the fight over the commerce clause and the “necessary and proper “

clause and the federal government’s role in general festering and heading the

wrong way as it has since 1942.  As a result of the decision the libs are

saying great things about Roberts; how wise, fair and reasonable he is.

They would never have said that without this decision even after the Arizona immigration decision on Monday.  In the future when Roberts rules

conservatively it will be harder for the left and the media to complain about

the Robert’s Court’s fairness.  That’s why he as Chief Justice went to the

other side for this decision not Scalia, Alito, Thomas or Kennedy, all of whom

I believe would have been willing to do it.

  

Next let’s look at the decision itself.  Thankfully Roberts got to write

it as Chief Justice and it is a masterpiece.  (As I write this the libs

don’t even know what has happened they just think Roberts is great and that

they won and we are all going to have free, unlimited healthcare services and

we are all going to live happily ever after.)  He first emphatically states

that Obamacare is unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause saying you cannot

make people buy stuff. Then he emphatically states that it is unconstitutional

under the “necessary and proper” clause which only applies to “enumerated

powers” in the US Constitution.   Justices Ginsberg, Breyer,

Sotomayor and Kagan all went along with these statements.  They

never would have gone along with that sentiment if that was the basis for

striking the law in total.  This is huge because this means that the Court

ruled 9-0 that Obamacare was unconstitutional under the Commerce clause which

was Obama’s whole defense of the bill.  They also ruled 9-0 on the

“necessary and proper” clause.  Even better both of these rulings were

unnecessary to the decision so it is gravy that we got the libs to concede this

and it will make it easier to pare away at both theories in the future, which

we must do.  Well done.

  

Roberts, through very tortured reasoning, goes on to find that the taxing law

provides the Constitutionality for the law.  Virtually everyone agrees

that the Federal government has the power to do this as it does with the

mortgage deduction for federal income taxes.  This too is huge because Obama assiduously avoided using the term “tax”

and now he has to admit this law is a tax and it is on everyone even the

poor.  That will hurt him hugely in the polls and will help Romney.

More importantly though is the fact that this makes this a budgetary issue that

can be voted on in the Senate by a mere majority instead of 60 votes needed to

stop a filibuster.  That means that if the Republicans can gain a majority

in the Senate, it can vote to repeal Obamacare in total.

  

Finally the Court voted 7-2 to strike down the punitive rules that take away

money from states that do not expand Medicare as required in Obamacare.

This too is huge because we got Kagan and Breyer to join

this decision and it can easily be applied to many other cases of extortion the

Federal government uses to force states to do things they don’t want to.

This is also amazing because Obamacare has no severability clause so by

striking the Medicaid mandate portion as unconstitutional the whole bill should

have been struck.  If that happened none

of these other benefits would have been accomplished. I haven’t read far enough

to know how he did it but I am sure it is brilliant.

  

So to recap the Roberts court through a

brilliant tactical maneuver has: strengthened the limitations of the commerce

clause and the necessary and proper clause by a unanimous decision,

made Obama raise taxes on the poor and middle classes, converted Obamacare into

a tax program repealable with 51 votes in the Senate, enhanced

Romney’s and Republican’s fundraising and likelihood of being elected in November,

weakened federal extortion and got the left to love Roberts and sing his

praises all without anyone even noticing.  Even Obama is now espousing the

rule of law just 2 weeks after violating it with his deportation executive

order. 

That is why I have decided this was a genius decision and that I

did in fact get a great birthday present today not to mention

U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder being held in contempt.  What a day.