DeMint calls for unconstitutional state-based nullification to fight ‘Obamacare’.

Strangely appropriate because the doctrine of ‘nullification’ was originated and articulated by another Senator from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun.

In case you missed it, both Fox and CNN jumped the gun this morning and reported the Court’s overturning health care reform. Watch.

You can read the opinion here.

As several of our readers noted, the ‘Scalia Freakout‘ ended up being the big tell about this morning’s ruling.

Adding to the chaotic swirl as the Supreme Court announced its decision, CNN beat everyone else to the punch by announcing that the mandate had been thrown out:

Via Brian Beutler: “The ruling ends a Quixotic conservative quest to vanquish Obama’s signature achievement by fiat. It also devastates the GOP’s long-standing appeal to voters that the law exists as a monument to liberal overreach, in defiance of accepted limits on federal power. That Roberts, a conservative emissary to the Court, voted to uphold is particularly devastating.”

I have some thoughts on the politics of this — mainly because the politics is what I have some expertise to speak about. But that will be my next post. Before I do that I wanted to state very clearly that the politics of the decision pales before its substance, a fact that I suspect will get little attention today. This decision will have a massive effect on the lives of literally millions of people. Mitt Romney may have joked yesterday that the White House was “not sleeping real well” last night. But a lot of people tonight and in the future will sleep a lot better for this result. Young people, people with pre-existing conditions and mainly people who through the chaos of the health care market simply find themselves with no coverage. Read More

Here’s Brian Beutler’s initial report for us on the decision.

I should also refer you back to Brian’s piece after the oral arguments in March where he picked up on John Robert’s possibly tipping his hand on the idea that the mandate is constitutional under Congress’ usual taxing power: “John Roberts May Have Tipped His Hand On ‘Obamacare’ Reasoning.”

Our Brian Beutler predicted it right after the oral arguments.

Because of the archaic way the Supreme Court releases its decisions, there was lots of initial confusion about what the holding in the case was. We’re still awaiting the actual opinion, but the upshot is that the individual mandate survived under the taxing power of Congress, not under the Commerce Clause. Much more to come soon right here.