The Chief Justice John Roberts Diary, Part II — June Entries Indicate A Chief Justice Besieged Prior To “Obamacare” Ruling
Today, we at They Will Say ANYTHING! publish the second in our exclusive series of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ daily diary entries. It is here where he recorded his deeply personal reactions to contacts with his colleague Justices during the deliberations leading up to the National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. ___ (2012), the June 28, 2012 Affordable Care Act (or “Obamacare”) ruling. [To review our first installment of Chief Justice Roberts’ diary, click here. Document will open in a new window/tab.]
A large number of media outlets and legal analysts have speculated that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts changed his mind about overturning the Affordable Care Act (ACA), apparently stunning his conservative colleagues. As a result, the Chief Justice cast the critical “swing vote” upholding the individual mandate, and thereby saved President Obama’s legislative center piece. Rather than Justice Kennedy, who prognosticators expected to appear in that role, it was Roberts who stole the show, approving the ACA on grounds that implicated congressional taxing power, rather than congressional commerce clause or spending powers, both of which, unsurprisingly, he declared that Congress had exceeded.
According to our They Will Say ANYTHING! sources within the court, Chief Justice Roberts originally sided with the conservative bloc, and, according to many, had begun writing the – then – majority opinion to overturn the law. Yet, reports have it that at some point in May or June, Roberts changed his mind. After he informed his colleagues, there quickly followed a campaign of internecine warfare, each ideological wing of the Court trying to entice or harangue, depending upon its hoped for outcome.
Following the editor’s notes below are two pages of Chief Justice Roberts diary notes, photocopied from the originals. Discovered among detritus in the Chief Justice’s waste receptacle – and, assumed by us quite reasonably to have been, in a legal sense, abandoned – the diary pages were retrieved and passed it along to They Will Say ANYTHING! for exclusive publication. As you will see, the Chief Justice was under unrelenting pressure that few of us could withstand.
Chief Justice John Roberts June 2012 Diary Entries Prior to the Affordable Health Care Act Ruling.pdf
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