Posted on 03/28/2012 12:09:24 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Justices to lawyers: Don't make us read the law
By: Politico Staff March 28, 2012 02:22 PM EDT
So much for “read the bill.”
Three days into oral arguments over President Barack Obama’s health care law, Supreme Court justices made a plea to the lawyers Wednesday: Please don’t make us read it.
Justice Antonin Scalia cut in when Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler said the justices would need to look at “the structure and the text” of the 2,700-page law .
“Mr. Kneedler, what happened to the Eighth Amendment?” Scalia asked — a joking reference to the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. “You really want us to go through these 2,700 pages?
“And do you really expect the court to do that? Or do you expect us to — to give this function to our law clerks? Is this not totally unrealistic? That we are going to go through this enormous bill item by item and decide each one?"
Taking a swipe at the court’s textualists, Justice Elena Kagan said the court could dispense with the legislative history and “look at the text that’s actually given us.”
“For some people, we look only at the text,” she said. “It should be easy for Justice Scalia's clerks.”
“I don't care whether it's easy for my clerks,” Scalia said to laughs. “I care whether it's easy for me.”
Although “read the bill” was a rallying cry on the right during the congressional fight over the law, Chief Justice John Roberts seemed to acknowledge Wednesday that he hadn’t done so himself.
“Where is this line?” he asked Kneedler at one point. “I looked through the whole Act, I didn't read ... “
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Even mockery from the bench! I hope it is a train wreck, indeed.
A vast majority of the House and the Senate didn’t read the entire law, our lazy President didn’t read the entire law and now the Justices are not reading the entire law. This suggests to me that unelected legislative staffers are running this country.
I have a hard time understanding anyone supporting a law that congress didn't read, the senate didn't read,the president didn't read, and the supreme court didn't read. Somebody read the blasted thing already!
The ‘Center For American Progress” is. My understanding is that they wrote much of it, along with Max Baucus. Anyone know who the REAL authors are? I can’t believe the Google searches.
This is actually a sad admission that justices can’t be bothered to read and understand that which they are adjudicating. One would think that familiarizing themselves with the subject matter of their concern would be part of the job description, all 2700 pages worth. That’s why they get paid the big bucks.
If the Supreme court justices read it, they will be the first humans on the face of the earth to have done so.
I would wager that NO ONE has EVER read the thing cover to cover... So, if no one else ever has, why make the Justices read it!!
It will be overlooked, however, that neither did Obama, Reid, Pelosi nor any one of the 535 Congress members who voted on it.
Coming soon to a news medium near you.
Kagan knows that if she can persuade them to read the entire thing this ruling won’t be issued till 2017
Remember it was San Fran Nan who said, “We have to pass the bill to see what’s in it.” This is the height of irresponsibility. I hate these people. They should all be forced to eat it, page by page.
The media is jealous of it’s greatest achievement:
A law that was passed without ever having been read by anyone.
This is one time when they need to throw out the baby and the bathwater. The whole bill is a POS.
I wish I could figure out how a major piece of legislation gets voted on and signed into legislation, and now challenged in multiple courts, and yet NO ONE HAS READ IT!
Why read the whole thing? If I'm on the Court, as soon as I find anything unconstitutional, there's no reason to read any further. My job is done.
i just hope America is watching this disaster. Obamacare and it’s namesake.
I wish someone of high authority would read the dang bill just to point out how treasonous, unconstitutional and illegal it really is. I would like people to know what their progressive/communist/liberal lawmakers tried to pull on them.
Mark Levin claims to have read it. A person familiar with legaleze should be able to skim it in a week or two.
Sounds like somebody suggested to Scalia that grokking this puppy’s alleged virtue would require an appreciation of the whole glorious mess.
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