Obamacare dissent suggests Roberts switched sides Blogs Big Government by: Joel B. Pollak Thursday, June 28, 2012 Some legal scholars believe that the wording of Justice Anthony Kennedy's dissenting opinion of the Obamacare case suggests that a late change was made by Chief Justice John Roberts. Photo Credit:AP As legal scholars study the Supreme Court's decision in the Obamacare case, more and more are concluding that Justice Anthony Kennedy's dissenting opinion, striking down the law in its entirety, was once the majority opinion — and that Chief Justice John Roberts switched his vote at a late stage. As National Review's Ed Whelan, the Volokh Conspiracy's David Bernstein, and others are pointing out, the dissent refers to another opinion as "the dissent" and uses the pronoun "we," as if speaking for the Court, as majority opinions typically do. In addition, the dissent focuses on the government's arguments, rather than tackling the majority head-on. That suggests that a switch — most likely by the Chief Justice himself — may have come very late in the game, too late to offer more than the most cursory revisions of the opinions in the case. Read more: http://times247.com/articles/obamacare-dissent-suggests-roberts-switched-sides#ixzz1z9Tt05NJ

Obamacare dissent suggests Roberts switched sides

Blogs

Big Government

by: Joel B. Pollak

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Some legal scholars believe that the wording of Justice Anthony Kennedy's dissenting opinion of the Obamacare case suggests that a late change was made by Chief Justice John Roberts. Photo Credit:AP

As legal scholars study the Supreme Court's decision in the Obamacare case, more and more are concluding that Justice Anthony Kennedy's dissenting opinion, striking down the law in its entirety, was once the majority opinion — and that Chief Justice John Roberts switched his vote at a late stage.

As National Review's Ed Whelan, the Volokh Conspiracy's David Bernstein, and others are pointing out, the dissent refers to another opinion as "the dissent" and uses the pronoun "we," as if speaking for the Court, as majority opinions typically do. In addition, the dissent focuses on the government's arguments, rather than tackling the majority head-on. That suggests that a switch — most likely by the Chief Justice himself — may have come very late in the game, too late to offer more than the most cursory revisions of the opinions in the case.

Read more: http://times247.com/articles/obamacare-dissent-suggests-roberts-switched-sides#ixzz1z9Tt05NJ