For Barack Obama the bid on the Affordable Care Act is huge. Although it is earlier enough not to drastically impact his bid in the November reelections, a negative ruling from the Supreme Justice Court on the Obamacare is going to significantly lower his chances. As the ruling enters the final day of oral arguments, a shaky U.S. Solicitor General Argument might crumble the Obamacare.
For many people the Affordable Care Act is quite a controversial subject, as the law proposal would require almost everybody in America to buy health insurance. That’s why the Supreme Justice Court has been asked to rule whether or not the Obamacare is constitutional. The court enters today the final day of arguments and even if it has until June to deliver its ruling, what U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli did yesterday might have been enough.
U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli was questioned by Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Chief Justice John Roberts. For some reason, Verrilli screwed up so badly that Jeffrey Toobin, legal analyst for CNN, called his argument “a train wreck for the Obama administration”. Verrilli had such a bad day, that at moment justices in the court left the impression they were actually guiding the U.S. Solicitor General towards the best arguments.
The media slashed at Donald Verrilli without mercy. Adam Serwer with Mother Jones wrote that the Solicitor General “should be grateful to the Supreme Court for refusing to allow cameras in the courtroom, because his defense of Obamacare on Tuesday may go down as one of the most spectacular flameouts in the history of the court”.
Jeffrey Toobin with CNN is almost sure that Obamacare would be struck down and pointed out that if it does, Verrilli’s poor argument might be at blame for it. And it surely didn’t help that Paul Clement, with the law’s opponents, had a remarkable performance.
A reporter with the Washington Post talked with Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli right when he was leaving the Supreme Court. Cuccinelli said: “I’ve been cautiously optimistic all along and today only pushed me a bit in that direction. I think the federal government failed to provide a constitutionality limiting principle”.
