The Supreme Court of the
The Supreme Court, by statute, opens the first Monday of October each year. From October to late June or early July, The Court progresses through various stages of case review. Justices work through alternate periods of hearing and considering arguments, and rendering opinions. These alternating opinions last approximately two weeks each.
Annual Sessions of SCOTUS last 365 days, or one year. However, individual cases are not heard after late June or early July. The remaining time, approximately three months, is spent preparing for the next year’s Session.
There are three acknowledged branches of the federal government; the Executive (President), the Legislative(Congress – The Senate and the House of Representatives), and the Judicial (SCOTUS). Of the three branches, many observers and analysts consider Supreme Court to be the most powerful.
The President is often the central figure in discussions about our national government. However, Congress acts in a check and balance capacity to prevent a President from acting as a Monarch or a Dictator. Both Houses of Congress must pass legislation before the President signs a bill into law. If however, the President believes a piece of legislation is not in the best interest of the Country, he may veto it. When that happens, both Houses must assemble what amounts to a super majority (2/3 in both Houses) in order for such a bill to be veto-proofed, and enacted into law. Of course, the President, and members of both Houses of Congress must run for and win election in order to serve in their respective capacities.
Contrasting a few of the basic parameters, aside from eligibility, that the President and members of Congress must meet, with those of the Supreme Court, one finds stark distinctions. While there is only one President at a time compared to nine Justices, eight Associates, and one Chief, the President must run for and win in a nationwide election. Meanwhile, there are 435 members of the House of Representatives, and 100 Senators. House members must compete for election in intrastate legislative districts, while their Senate counterparts run in statewide elections.
The Justices, affectionately known as The Supremes in some circles, are appointed rather than elected. Perhaps, more important, their appointments are lifetime, or until/if they decide to retire, become too ill to serve, get removed by Impeachment, or die in office. Frequently they have historically served until death, or physical incapacity. With regard to Impeachment, my commitment to full-disclosure requires that I advise you that in the History of the United States more Justices have died while hearing a case before The Court, than have been removed from office by Impeachment.
Chief Justice Harlan Stone suffered a cerebral hemorrhage April 22, 1946 while reading aloud from his dissenting opinion in the case of Girouard v. United States. He is the only Justice to actually die in the Court.
There has also been only one Supreme Court Justice Impeached…ever! SamuelChase was Impeached by the House of Representatives in 1804. However, in his subsequent Senate trial he was acquitted. Justice Chase continued to serve until his death in 1811. Therefore, no Supreme Court Justice has ever been removed from office due to Impeachment.
There have been 112 Supreme Court Justices to date. An historical argument can be made that it is more likely that a Justice will die while hearing a case than be removed from office by virtue of Impeachment. Moreover, 49, or 43.75% of Justices have died which in their active term of service. In other words, though it is surely a tough gig to obtain, job security is off the chain! On top of that, Justices frequently dispense rulings that decide the fate of statutes Congress has created, and that Presidents have signed into law.
As you have likely heard by now, tomorrow is the last day of the active case portion of this year’s Session of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). The signature item on the docket, not just for tomorrow, but for this entire year, is Health Care Reform, which includes two pieces of legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA/signed March 23, 2010), and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4872), (enacted March 30, 2010).
As The Court winds down for the year, controversial cases, opinions, and rulings are par for the course. In that regard, this year is no exception. The dynamic that has super-charged the energy surrounding the conclusion of cases for this Session of The Court is the palpable tension between President Obama’s efforts to institute health care reform, and the solid bloc of opponents challenging what they not so affectionately refer to as Obamacare, because the President expended an exceptional amount of political capital to get the landmark legislation passed in 2010.
I have not crystal ball, Tarot Cards, or other special insight that allows me to pre-share tomorrow’s ruling. There are any number of projections, a good many that expect a split decision, both based on votes by the Justices (5-4 would not be surprising), and among the provisions of the statute. The infamous health insurance mandate, a provision which would require virtually every American to purchase and maintain health insurance, is by most accounts the single most controversial aspect of a program widely viewed as controversial throughout.
Insiders have suggested if there is a razor-thin ruling (5-4), Justice Anthony Kennedy is likely to be the pivotal actor. Of current Justices, all attended
The flip-side of the Kennedy White Knight scenario is that based on seniority calculus (which relates to the Justices that have written the Session's preceding opinions), Chief Justice John Roberts, the current (and 17th) may be poised to write the opinion on Health Care Reform. Because of the Chief Justice's well-known (ultra) conservative leanings, this is thought to bode poorly for the law's prospects of being upheld.
My expectation is that at a minimum, the mandate will be found to be Unconstitutional. Moreover, while there are some popular elements of the law, elimination of the pre-existing condition principle, standard in current health insurance, and implementing a dependent child provision that extends a child's coverage on parents' policies until age 26, for example, I think it more likely that the law will be scuttled in toto than that it will beadopted fully.
In any event, hang in there, it won’t be long now. Remember, Health Care Reform: Here Come the Judges! I’m done; holla back!
Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. A new post is published each Wednesday. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment