3 thoughts on “Yesterday’s Appellate Ruling On ObamaCare”

  1. The slippery slope is followed all the way down.

    Justice Kennedy has his work cut out for him. There’s no doubt he’ll get the honor of writing the majority opinion.

  2. I find the analysis a little unpersuasive. I believe what people do is more indicative than what they say, and regardless of the flood of words issued by the swing judge, what he did is vote to uphold the law. Khattam-Shud, as the Water Genie would say. That’s the bottom line.

    I think Barnett is dismayed, too, as much as he furiously rationalized it away.

    Judges are not going to save us. Judges don’t actually believe in liberty, or they wouldn’t stay judges, a position that requires them to force people do stuff they don’t want to do — either “for their own good” or the alleged good of others — eight hours a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year.

    Neither, in fact, will the executive, which loves the power, or the legislature, which thinks it can and should meddle in our lives all the time for our benefit.

    No, the only salvation here lies in our very own hands. We can only reverse things by making it abundantly clear that we prize our liberty so much and can be made so angry by its infringement that the secret ancient fear of being hanged to the nearest tree by an outraged mob percolates down into their black little hearts. Then, and only then, will legislators and judges and Presidents fall all over themselves to explain why they need to respect liberty and do less.

    Government is a Faustian bargain, a deal with the devil, a loaded gun handed to a stranger you’ve just met. It lures with the promise of immense power to change what you dislike about the world, and the behaviour of others, but it turns out well in only a few, clear-cut, very restricted cases. It has never been the case, going right back to Caesar, that trading your general liberty for general security and welfare ends up in anything but catastrophe.

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