The right is giddy after last week’s Supreme Court arguments on Obamacare. Their glee may come back to haunt them.
By Eliot Spitzer | Posted Monday, April 2, 2012, at 5:24 PM ET
Conservative intellectuals are feeling giddy. Last week they feasted on
the veritable mauling of Solicitor General Donald Verrilli by the
Supreme Court’s five conservative justices. (In truth, Verrilli was only
questioned by four of the conservatives—Justice Clarence Thomas, true
to form, didn’t speak. But we know where his vote lies.) It is now
conventional wisdom that health care reform—the Affordable Care Act, to
be precise—will be deemed unconstitutional, at least in part. I tell the
students in my class at the City College of New York that “five” is the
most powerful number in the nation. For as we have seen, five votes on
the Supreme Court can pick a president—voters notwithstanding—and five
votes could redefine our understanding of Congress’ power under the
Commerce Clause of the Constitution—precedents notwithstanding. So maybe
the conservative celebration is merited. Yet it is also plausible that
an element of hubris has overtaken the right.
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