{"id":1461312,"date":"2022-05-03T07:46:58","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T11:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1461312"},"modified":"2022-05-03T07:47:08","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T11:47:08","slug":"john-roberts-cowardice-on-obamacare-is-why-the-left-thinks-it-can-bully-and-extort-scotus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/john-roberts-cowardice-on-obamacare-is-why-the-left-thinks-it-can-bully-and-extort-scotus\/","title":{"rendered":"John Roberts\u2019 Cowardice On Obamacare Is Why The Left Thinks It Can Bully and Extort SCOTUS"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjohn-roberts-cowardice-on-obamacare-is-why-the-left-thinks-it-can-bully-and-extort-scotus%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1461312&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Picture1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>In a matter of hours, Washington D.C. and the political world have erupted in chaos. On Monday evening, Politico published a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/05\/02\/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473\">report<\/a> of an alleged leaked draft of a majority U.S. Supreme Court decision that would strike down <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em>, the 1973 court case that federally legalized abortion in the United States. <\/p>\n<p>Writing for the majority in\u00a0<em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em>, Justice Samuel Alito\u2019s alleged draft opinion describes the irrationality of the 1973 ruling, reportedly stating that \u201c<em>Roe<\/em>\u00a0was egregiously wrong from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hold that\u00a0<em>Roe<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Casey<\/em>\u00a0must be overruled,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/s3.documentcloud.org\/documents\/21835435\/scotus-initial-draft.pdf\">writes<\/a> Alito. \u201cIt is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people\u2019s elected representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the bombshell report, the leak came from a \u201cperson familiar with the court\u2019s deliberations,\u201d with the source also claiming that \u201cfour of the other Republican-appointed justices \u2013 Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett \u2013 had voted with Alito in the conference held among the justices after hearing oral arguments in December, and that line-up remains unchanged as of this week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although the identity of the leaker currently remains unclear, this person\u2019s intended goal is fairly obvious. In disseminating the alleged <em>Dobbs<\/em> opinion before its scheduled release, the leaker is seeking to generate a firestorm of vitriol from left-wing activists directed at the court\u2019s Republican-appointed justices, in the hopes that some will switch their position before the final opinion is released.<\/p>\n<p>While such tactics are despicable and completely destroy the long-held and respected inner workings of the high court, it\u2019s not surprising given that previous public pressure campaigns have worked in swaying justices in other highly political cases, with Chief Justice John Roberts being the most notable.<\/p>\n<p>In the 2012\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/11pdf\/11-393c3a2.pdf\">NFIB v. Sebelius<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>decision on Obamacare, for instance, Roberts joined the leftists on the court to uphold the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with the chief justice ruling that the federal government has the power to force citizens to purchase health insurance under its power to tax. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Affordable Care Act is constitutional in part and unconstitutional in part. The individual mandate cannot be upheld as an exercise of Congress\u2019s power under the Commerce Clause,\u201d Roberts wrote. \u201cIn this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without health insurance. Such legislation is within Congress\u2019s power to tax.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The faulty legal reasoning was not Roberts\u2019 original position on the matter. According to \u201cThe Chief,\u201d a book written by longtime SCOTUS reporter Joan Biskupic, Roberts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2019\/03\/john-roberts-biography-review\/580453\/\">initially<\/a> had sided with his conservative colleagues in striking down Obamacare, \u201con the grounds that it went beyond Congress\u2019s power to regulate interstate commerce.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Fears over potential public blowback for such a decision, however, prompted Roberts to operate as a politician, with Biskupic noting how \u201che felt \u2018torn between his heart and his head&#8217;\u201d over striking down the ACA. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter trying unsuccessfully to find a middle way with [Justice Anthony] Kennedy, who was \u2018unusually firm\u2019 and even \u2018put off\u2019 by the courtship, Roberts turned to the Court\u2019s two moderate liberals, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan,\u201d a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2019\/03\/john-roberts-biography-review\/580453\/\">review<\/a> of the book published in The Atlantic reads. \u201cThe threesome negotiated a compromise decision that upheld the ACA\u2019s individual mandate under Congress\u2019s taxing power, while striking down the Medicaid expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The book seemingly confirms <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/roberts-switched-views-to-uphold-health-care-law\/\">reporting<\/a> from CBS News\u2019 Jan Crawford, who in her 2012 story of Roberts\u2019 Obamacare flip-flop noted how the chief justice \u201cpays attention to media coverage\u201d and \u201cis sensitive to how the court is perceived by the public.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Roberts may have thought his last-minute switch to save Obamacare was a bid to maintain peace in politics, it actually did the exact opposite. Roberts\u2019 spinelessness in the 2012 ACA decision was not only unconstitutional garbage, but it also revealed to the neo-Marxist left that the court can be influenced in high-profile cases if there\u2019s enough public outcry waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n<p>With the leak of the purported <em>Dobbs<\/em> opinion now public, Roberts\u2019 actions have placed a target on the backs of his conservative colleagues, with threats of violence and harassment from leftists on the way. Whether he wants to believe it or not, his decision to play politician has jeopardized the independence of the court for years to come.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Shawn Fleetwood is an intern at The Federalist and a senior at the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a matter of hours, Washington D.C. and the political world have erupted in chaos. On Monday evening, Politico published a report of an alleged leaked draft of a majority<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1461312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1461312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1461312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1461312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1461312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}