Health Care Reform

On Chief Justice Roberts and the Separation of Powers


A rather nuanced analysis of Chief Justice John Roberts and the decision rendered in the Affordable Care Act:

Chief Justice Roberts promised this kind of balanced jurisprudence when being vetted for the Court, but has not always made good on the promise in the dozens of 5-4 cases in which he has consistently sided with the "conservatives." But in the second most important decision to come before his Court (I count Citizens United the most important), he showed that his commitment to the independence and integrity of the court, and to the separation of powers, was real. That so very much was at stake politically made his position the more remarkable — although it was perhaps precisely because the case was so political that he chose to use it to make clear his commitment to judicial restraint in the name of a true balance of powers.

Read the entire analysis here.


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