Posted on 03/21/2014 9:53:30 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Could Citizens United and a semi-colon undo Obamacare?
National Constitution Center By Scott Bomboy 5 hours ago
Next Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear two cases related to the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and the stakes are high for both sides. In fact, the interpretation of a semi-colon in the context of the First Amendment could play a critical role.
The semi-colon’s use was argued in the appeals court decision that led one of the two cases to the Supreme Court’s doorstep.
“Appellants also argue that Citizens United is applicable to the Free Exercise [of religion] Clause because ―the authors of the First Amendment only separated the Free Exercise Clause and the Free Speech Clause by a semi-colon, thus showing the continuation of intent between the two,” said circuit judge Robert Cowen in the Conestoga Wood appeals court decision. “We are not persuaded that the use of a semi-colon means that each clause of the First Amendment must be interpreted jointly.”
In other words, the semi-colon argument holds that the free exercise of religion and free exercise of speech are linked. Since the Citizens United case gave corporations the same free speech rights as people, the argument states that corporations should have the same free religious exercise rights as people, too, and they should be able to opt out of Obamacare.
Judge Cowen didn’t agree with the logic, but now the issue is one of several that will be argued in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
In late November 2013, the Justices accepted the two cases, to be argued at the same time, which question the government’s ability to compel for-profit companies with religious convictions to pay for birth-control coverage.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
context is everything!
Thank you.
Words mean things. Sentences mean things. Punctuation serves a purpose.
Above all, what was the intent of the founders?
semicolons were never my favorite subject in grammar school, but if a semicolon can remove the Obamacare blight from America (and our American economy!), then THREE CHEERS for the semicolon!
(Truly, the Lord works in mysterious ways...)
Not holding my breath on this. Hope I’m wrong but, I fully expect SCOTUS to come up with the wrong decision (again).
I don’t see any room for debate. The God-given and constitutionally protected right to the free exercise of religion takes absolute priority over any government whim, even if we ignore the fact that the Supremes were wrong the last time they voted on ObamaCare and the law itself is invalid because it is outside the scope of the Enumerated Powers. Fortunately, Chief Justice Roberts is an intelligent and thoughtful man, so we can count on him to decide this based on the merits . . . time to pray.
-PJ
Since Roberts violated the very fabric of the constitution by ruling ObamaCare legal in the first place, I am not going to hold my breath he’s going to let punctuation stand in his way.
So the opposition’s argument is that if I create a Corporation I surrender all of my Constitutional rights in the act of running it?
That seems a little hard to swallow. Unless I misunderstand.
;^).....................
“Words mean things. Sentences mean things. Punctuation serves a purpose.”
when Clinton first said “it depends on what your definition of is, is”, words started their downward spiral of no meaning.
Well played. “Phonetic Punctuation” is a masterpiece.
I am still curious as to why the ACA has not been challenged with regard to 42 USC § 18115 - Freedom not to participate in Federal health insurance programs?
Chief Justice Roberts is awaiting instructions form the administration on how to proceed.
Woop De doo, this would only apply to the birth control mandate, an tiny tiny fraction of this monstrocity.
boy does THAT bring back some memories and Laughs!!..
a million bucks to the first poster to successfully pull off a text based quote from Victor’s routine
Wow! Punctuation was fought over drafting the constitution; the semicolon was fought over! “A Semicolon Is Not a Comma,
Or, How a Semicolon Almost Changed the Constitution”
http://www.uwgb.edu/voelkerd/handouts/semicolon-by-david-voelker.pdf
Just like a judge to come up with a
Semicolonoscopy...
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