I don't know what the SCOTUS will decide about Romney/Obamacare, but I guess that (whatever it does) it will make a narrow decision with little precedent-setting power. Scalito may thunder against the individual mandate and ask stupid questions, but they do that because they can. There's no appeals court to slap them down if they say or do stupid things. In fact, they can and will be awarded by right-wingers who will pay them exorbitant fees for public speaking, reinforcing their behavior and encouraging its persistence.
Anyway, if the SCOTUS makes a broad decision with a lot of precedent-setting power, i.e., knocking down the whole idea of a individual mandate, wouldn't that legally rule out the possibility of conscription in the future? What is the draft but an example of the government telling selected individuals that they must "eat broccoli," i.e., must take one specific type of job (meeting interesting people and killing them). Taken a little further (and I'm no legal expert), ending the individual mandate might ban the payment of taxes. BTW, I heard on the news that the Koch brothers want to have direct control over the money-libertarian Cato Institute. From an M-L perspective, what's wrong with that? after all, they paid for it, why shouldn't they own it? -- Jim Devine / "In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite." -- Paul Dirac _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
