Think about the stinging dissents that Justices Alito and Scalia read from the bench yesterday, Alito angry that the states are not allowed to sentence juveniles to mandatory life without parole, and Scalia outraged that Arizona is not allowed to act like the sovereign nation it never was in enforcing its own immigration policy. I don't have much to add to the legal analysis of those dissents. Both seem awfully full of holes to me. But why were these dissenters so angry?
I could be wrong, but to me it sends a hopeful signal about the health care decision expected on Thursday. If the Supreme Court were about to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, then Scalia and Alito, even while dissenting in yesterday's cases, would have been smirking to themselves in pleasure at the ruling they are about to hand down on health insurance. They know that the health care case is the big deal, and if they were going to win on that one, they should have been able to take the Arizona immigration case and the juvenile punishment cases in stride. But Alito and Scalia seemed far from sanguine about these cases.
Why were they so angry? It would seem they only have a right to be as angry as they acted yesterday if they are also going to find themselves in the minority on health care. Only if this very conservative court--as conservative a Supreme Court as has ever existed in my lifetime, and probably, if Obama is re-elected, as conservative a Supreme Court as we will see for the remainder of my lifetime--only if that conservative court is about to hand a 6-3 victory to the liberals. Because that would mean they have reached the limits of their conservative power, and it did not gain them all they wanted, and it is all downhill for them after this. One can only hope.
hopeandchange