For those of a certain age, and place of rearing, the title of this piece is familiar. Markey Maypo demanded a helping of his favorite hot cereal, right now damn it!, and so this short piece will be an instant analysis of the Obamacare ruling. I've assiduously avoided anything other than the straight reporting of the ruling. I await developments among the Standard Pundits; perhaps they will reach my conclusion, perhaps not. In the former case, they're really smart; in the latter, a bunch of knuckleheads.
So.
No, Roberts didn't all of a sudden get stare decisis religion. Far from it. If he had, he'd have hung the ruling on the commerce clause, but he chose tax authority. Crafty bastard. He has, with the flick of a pen, dug razor edged rowelled spurs into the flanks of the Tea Party Trojan Horse, already munching on acres of locoweed. The Right Wingnuts haven't a prayer of changing or repealing the commerce clause, but they're all for limiting tax authority. They now have their banner. Onward, Christian Soldiers!!!
[update]:
The first Standard Punditry:
"My own sense, from reading the Roberts opinion, is that it was written as a majority opinion in all of its drafts, and that various justices joined or dropped off," [Lyle] Denniston [SOCTUSblog] told Yahoo News. "I think he was determined to try to uphold some key parts of the law, if he could find a way, partly because ... he has grown concerned about the public perception that his court is a partisan-driven court."
[update 2]:
From Slate, read the bottom two paragraphs.
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