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.”
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.
We set up a special page for all our coverage of the Supreme Court’s decision on the health care reform law. It has all of our stories on the topic, will have all of the new stories we write today, and on the right-hand side of the page it has our special #HCR/SCOTUS Livewire stream where you can follow all the breaking news in real time.
Of course you can find our coverage in all the usual places, too, but this is a one-stop shop for today’s big news.
The health care ruling will be announced in the next few hours so this post won’t have a long shelf life. But I think it’s worth breaking down explicitly why even certain conservative legal scholars regard the thought that the Affordable Care Act might disappear today to be so troubling — why it’s not just partisan disagreement all the way down. Read More
Obviously, everybody seems to think the Court either overturns the mandate or overturns the entire law. Intrade at the moment has a 73% chance of the mandate being overturned. Read More
Pushed back on its heels, Romney camp goes into full ‘Release the Kraken‘ mode against Bain attacks.
The meeting’s wrapped and the Washington Post’s brass apparently told Team Romney: Talk to the hand. From the Post’s spokesperson Kris Coratti: “We are very confident in our reporting.”
We’ve put together a list of what you’ve found to be some of the most iconic Obama photos of the last three years. Can you take a look and tell us which is your favorite and which we may have missed? Many thanks. Start right here.
Post confirms top brass meeting with Romney campaign to discuss recanting offshoring/outsourcing piece.