March 27th, 2012
Lawyer X writes in with the following bit of funny:
How awesome would it be if Justice Kennedy, in the controlling opinion, invalidated the individual mandate, relying on Lawrence v. Texas? Liberals would have a collective meltdown. I can see Rachel Maddow’s head exploding on live TV. And, conservatives would need to either (i) defend the reasoning underlying Lawrence, or (ii) concede that the invalidation of the individual mandate relied on judicial activism.
Lawyer X goes on to stipulate that Lawrence wouldn’t be particularly on-point, but that pointy-ness has never been the sine qua non of Justice Kennedy’s jurisprudence. If Kennedy wants to find against the mandate, but doesn’t want to look like an Evil Conservative, he could couch his opinion in terms of personal freedom and then throw a rope in the general direction of Lawrence.
Mike March 28, 2012 at 12:59 am
If the Sweet Mystery of Life means anything at all, it means the right not to buy health insurance if you damn-well don’t want to.