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Et tu, John? This was the anguished outcry of many conservatives to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority ruling on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, affectionately known as ObamaCare. In a startling reversal of his historically conservative and originalist judicial philosophy Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion of the Supreme Court to uphold ObamaCare.
The plurality of American conservatives anticipated Robert’s vote on ObamaCare to align with the other three conservatives on the Court, Justices Alito, Scalia and Thomas, who each voted to overturn the controversial health care legislation. Conventional thought had the swing vote to rest in the hands of Justice Anthony Kennedy. But Kennedy voted with Alito, Scalia and Thomas, and Roberts was the surprise judicial trump card.
Conservatives, stunned and outraged over Roberts’ vote, are calling for his head and branding him as a traitor, coward, a disappointment and a flip-flopper. Are these assaults on Justice Roberts merited? But then again since ObamaCare was upheld by the high court why isn’t the collective liberal left doing triumphant cartwheels? What is the political landscape to make of this abstruse political reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling? Perhaps it has something to do with how Chief Justice Roberts reconstituted the constitutionality of ObamaCare.
