Robert Leonard of Suffolk, Virginia…took a lot of time and wrote thoughtfully to The Kitchen Cabinet about his perspectives on Chief Justice John Roberts decision in Obamacare.  Many are enjoying it among our 2 million followers on Facebook this week.  We hope you will inform yourself with it as well:

While in the middle feeling despondent over the June 28, 2012 Supreme Court decision on Obamacare, while lamenting about why Justice Roberts, whom we’d all assumed to be a staunch conservative and Constitutionalist, would betray us and our country in our time of great need, I was suddenly struck with an epiphany which, I hope, is not simply trying to find the silver lining in the storm cloud, but might actually have been a brilliant move to, in actuality, strength our, and his, cause.

I started thinking beyond the immediate realization that

Justices Roberts and Alito Pose In Front Of The Looming, Historic, Supreme Court

Obamacare is now the law of the land, and realized that it is not by any means engraved in stone.  And then I started wondering why Roberts had joined the other four, obviously assigned himself to write the opinion, one which in several ways the likes of Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan could not have whole-heartedly approved, and why did he interject such statements which seem to question the wisdom of the law and also reminding the people that there are consequences, and remedies, to political decisions made at the ballot box.  And that’s when it struck me that perhaps, perhaps, in all actuality Roberts achieved a great victory over the forces of Socialism and Liberalism today, and did so in such a brilliant way that the forces of liberalism and tyranny never saw coming.

Did Roberts Masterfully Lead His Court To A Successful Outcome? Yes.

Let us consider that I’m the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, faced with a multitude of daunting issues.  First, you have the ages of some of the Justices, including at least one of my fellow conservatives, to consider, knowing that at least a few of them will be replaced before the end of the next Presidential Administration.  Ginsburg is 77 and has a history of health problems.  It’s surprising that she has not retired already.  Scalia is 74, Kennedy is 73, and Breyer is 71.  Two of those four are staunch Statist and Liberals, Kennedy is squishy at best, but Scalia is nearly irreplaceable as a beacon of conservatism and rational thought.  Then I would look at the incredible destruction to the nation’s economy, the lawlessness which has been exhibited by the current President throughout the entire previous three years, a split Congress unable to stop him, and the arrogance

Chief Justice John Roberts Ruling Reflects His Understanding Of Our President...Strengths AND Weaknesses.

and disdain that this neophyte President has shown for not just the Court but for anyone who dares presume to oppose or contradict him.  I would also have to consider that, perhaps, as damaging as Obamacare would be to the Constitution as a whole, Barak Obama’s open and continual criticism of the Constitution, its foundations and it’s framers, and his almost daily willingness to ignore it if it seems to get in the way of what he wants to accomplish, and I would have to conclude that Obama is himself an even greater threat to the Constitution and the Republic than the law before me.  And since I cannot take any active measures to defend against both threats, I have to look at trying to defeat the most dire threat of the two.

Americans Have Cause For Concern About The Future Of The Court

And then I look at the national polls which show, in spite of the orrid state of the economy, President Obama still has a 50/50 chance, if not better, of being re-elected, being able to continue with his lawless and destructive ways, and able to replace any retiring Justice with even more intellectual midgets like Sotomayor and Kagan.  And if Scalia has to step down, Obama gets to change the makeup of the court for the next 20 to 30 years!  So how do I, as a Justice who is not supposed to get involved in politics, but who cares deeply for the Constitution and the law, give it my best shot at seeing him defeated in the next election and preserve the life and health of this Republic?

As Chief Justice, I could have joined Scalia, Alito, Kennedy, and Thomas in declaring the entire law Unconstitutional, but doing so might well have been only a temporary measure at best, for if Obama is re-elected, he can replace retiring Justices with those who agree with his policies and politics.  I have a President who, when balked, always strikes out with childish temper tantrums, who has already shown his willingness to use the Court as a political football and foil, and who could, in a couple of years’ time, either bring back Obamacare, or up the ante with a single payer system, and have a new court all too willing to give go along.  Or I can give him what appears to be a victory, and do so in such a way that

Chief Justice Roberts Has Defined His Court With Thoughtful Obamacare Decision

not only damages him politically, but also his allies in congress!  Let’s look at these facts.  With this majority opinion, Roberts declares that the Congress cannot force a person to buy a good or service under the commerce clause, thus creating a precedential limit on what up until now had been a steadily increasing power used and abused by congress on a whole host of issues.  As Roberts, let’s say that I tell the liberal members that I am the deciding vote.  The other four have all decided to throw out the entire law, and if I join with them, Obamacare dies in its entirety.  If the liberals want to save Obamacare, they have to agree with me to call it a tax, not an exercise of the commerce clause, or they lose the whole law.  And, by the way, they have to agree that the States can’t be punished for not going along with the expansion of Medicare and Medicaid.  Now, by declaring the mandate to be a tax, federal law stipulates that the merits or legality of a tax cannot be debated by the courts until said tax has been implemented, which means that in 2014, if Obama is not defeated and the law not repealed, conservatives have another chance to argue against the mandate on the merits, legality, and fairness of the tax, on a whole host of legal and constitutional grounds related to equal protection and on being punitive to only certain citizens of the nation, and not applied equally and fairly across the board.

Next, by declaring this mandate to be a tax, I have just forced President Obama to loudly and proudly claim credit for having pushed for, defended, and signed into law the largest tax increase in world history!  Hardly something any sensible person would wish to have hanging around his neck during such bad economic times.  And speaking of the economy, I know full well what the uncertainty of Obamacare has done to economic activity and business are reluctant to hire or expand without knowing whether or not, or to what extent, Obamacare will be implemented.  Now with it the law of the land, business will most likely freeze hiring, and perhaps even further reduce their workforce, thus adding to the economic woes already assailing this president, making his re-election even more problematic.  And let us not forget, that with the state of the economy the only major issue on which Republicans to run, it is entirely possible that, in the next four month, economic conditions could improve enough to help the President with his re-election bid.  And let us also not forget the fact that we know that the administration plans on removing tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of unemployed persons from the unemployment statistics when their unemployment benefits either run out or are cancelled, thus giving him the

Obamacare Will NOT Help Build Jobs....It Will Kill Them.

chance to claim that unemployment is continuing to fall under his administration.  If making Obamacare the law of the land causes a further downturn in the economy, and an upturn in unemployment, that further hurts Obama and makes him and his claims and promises look even more pathetic and foolish.  After all, he claimed that passing this legislation will create jobs, and if tens of thousands of more jobs are lost as a result of the law having been legitimized, that will turn public perception and voters away from him.

And for the conservatives, now do they not only have the bad economy and Obama’s mismanagement to run against, but now they can rally around the need to replace him in order to repeal the law, but also run against every single Democrat up for re-election who voted for a law which two-thirds of the country already wants repealed!  By upholding this law, I’ve just made it much, much harder for many of those democrats to hold onto their seats in congress!

And finally, as Chief Justice, I included in my opinion the admonition that elections have consequences, and this horrid law is a glaring example of that fact.  Yes, I could have given Conservatives an easy out and victory, but one which very well could have proven fleeting.  Now, they have a chance to even further energize their efforts to defeat not only Obama but many of his fellow democrats, and this is also a test of the will and direction of the country.  If Obama still manages to hang onto the office even with all of this going against him, then the

The Branches Of Governemtn Square Off In Obamacare Decision

people of this nation are no longer worth defending and fighting for, and I may very well add my own name to the list of those retiring from the Court, and thus be able to escape the future consequences of a Government and Court turned almost wholly socialist.  After all, I’m only 55 years old, and I still have several decades of life ahead of me.  I can either do so as the Chief Justice of a Court over which I have little or no control or input, one which time and time again continues to erode and destroy the Constitution in ways I cannot stop, or I can step aside and watch the final death of this country from the sidelines, perhaps even from the safety and comfort from outside the borders of the former United States of America.

Or I can do something completely unexpected; strike a blow for freedom and the Republic in ways the opposition cannot understand.  Perhaps my ego and sense of self is such that I can withstand the slings and arrows which will come my way from those on my side of the political spectrum, and perhaps I will gladly suffer the stain and tarnish to my name and reputation if it means the chance to prevent an abomination like this law from appearing again before this court any time in the near future.  Perhaps it’s worth the ire and hatred from those whom had previously respected and admired me if it increases the chances that the makeup of the future court will be more in line with conservatism and “strict constructionism” rather than a court which will finish re-making the country into an European style socialist democracy.  Perhaps, as Chief Justice, I am willing to take a leap of faith in the people and the electoral system, to trust the electorate to right the ship on their own instead of depending upon five judges to do so for them.  Perhaps, just perhaps, I will go down in history, not as the man who only temporarily halted the slide of this country into the abyss, but as the Chief Justice who was willing to gamble everything on a leap of faith in the people of this country, on the chance that America could and would finally begin turning away from this destructive course and once again embrace the concepts of limited government and federalism without depending upon five men in robes to do so for them!

Roberts Prove HE Leads His Court

Of course, maybe he’s just tired of getting his name dragged through the mud and decided to take the easy way out by going along with the liberals, thus abating much of the name –calling, hate, and vitriol.  Maybe he’d rather be popular than right, but as a man who up until this point has spent his entire career fighting for the Constitution as it was written and intended, perhaps, just perhaps, Chief Justice Roberts has chosen a course of wisdom and courage by forcing right-thinking Americans to once again stand up and fight for what is right and just.

Robert Leonard

Suffolk, Virginia

June 28, 2012

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Filed under: Economy, Featured, Inside The KC, Politics by Sonja Eddings Brown, Jul 1, 2012