Betrayal: The Ruling on ObamaCare and the Federal Judiciary

The upholding of ObamaCare by the Supreme Court in an unexpected 5-4 political decision is a travesty of American constitutionality. It is a sad day in the country when a knowledgeable Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court betrays the country and places himself and his legacy — not to mention the chants for “change” and “progress,” and his obvious desire for a favorable, epochal association with the first African-American president — ahead of the moral and economic well being of the nation. I say this because the burden of ObamaCare will be laid directly on the shoulders of the already overtaxed and overstretched small businesses, entrepreneurs, and the American middle class who sustain this nation.

The liberal justices voted as we expected, for man is a political animal. But the deciding vote by Chief Justice Roberts, I posit, was cast to assert and define his personal legacy as stated above, and to ride the wave of the times of statism and collectivism, not to mention the alleged inescapable legal positivism of history.

It is always amazing to me how liberals quickly extend sanctity and infallibility status to the Supreme Court whenever the Justices issue a ruling in their favor, even in 5-4 rulings, as if the other four justices were non-existent entities! The reality is the Court has been and remains a political animal, swayed by the politics of the moment (expediency), private considerations (personal legacies), and partisanship (ideology). It must carefully be watched and judged by Congress, the states, and the people — as we are still a federated republic.

Thomas Jefferson and many of the founders warned us about the unchecked power of the courts.  In 1821, in a letter to his friend Charles Hammond, Jefferson wrote:

“The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary: an irresponsible body, working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction until all shall be usurped from the States, and the government of all be consolidated into one. To this I am opposed; because, when all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.”

Yes, Jefferson was annoyed by the power of the judiciary and the federal government at the expense of the States and individual liberty. I will not go as far as Jefferson in this condemnation, but it should make us ponder if our confidence in the Supreme Court should always be paramount.

And for those readers who will complain I am just a sore loser about this most recent court ruling, I ask where in the U.S. Constitution is Congress authorized to pass laws regarding education and health care, powers that the Court affirms as constitutional? For the likes of me, like James Madison on welfare, I cannot put my finger on either one of those elusive enumerated powers.

Simply stated, the upholding of ObamaCare by the Supreme Court, and its imminent consummation and consumption by the American people (most assuredly if President Obama is reelected with a suppliant congress) — will continue to bring forth the death knell of what remains of our Republic. The erstwhile prosperous land of the free, home of the brave, beacon of individual freedom and hope, will continue its descent and downward spiral toward more socialism — in the same mode and “fashion” as the morally and economically bankrupt social democracies of Europe. The fate of our nation hangs in the balance and will be determined this November!

Written by Dr. Miguel Faria

Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D. is the Author of Vandals at the Gates of Medicine (1995).

This article may be cited as: Faria MA. Betrayal: The Ruling on ObamaCare and the Federal Judiciary. HaciendaPublishing.com, July 2, 2012. Available from: https://haciendapublishing.com/betrayal-the-ruling-on-obamacare-and-the-federal-judiciary/.

Copyright ©2002 Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D.