After nearly two hours of arguments over the health care law’s significant expansion of the Medicaid program, it was impossible to determine whether a clear majority of Supreme Court justices were leaning toward a particular ruling.
As expected, liberal justices signaled their view that the challenge should fail, and conservative justices — notably Antonin Scalia — seemed sympathetic to the idea that the Medicaid expansion is unconstitutional. That might not seem surprising. But many legal scholars were shocked that the Court even agreed to hear this challenge. And the consequences of an adverse ruling would be so techtonic for the federalist system that the ambiguity of the conservative justice’s opinions is worth noting and taking seriously.
