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When a 1942 Supreme Court decision that most people have never heard of makes the front page of the New York Times in 2012, you know that something unusual is going on. What makes that 1942 case — Wickard v. Filburn — important today is that it stretched the federal government’s power so far that the Obama administration is using it before today’s Supreme Court as an argument to claim that it has the legal authority to impose Obamacare mandates on individuals. Roscoe Filburn was an Ohio farmer who grew some wheat to feed his family and some farm animals....

Paul Clement has been receiving rave reviews for his performance during the second day of oral arguments over health-care reform before the Supreme Court. (“[T]he best argument I’ve ever heard,” SCOTUSblog Tom Goldstein raved on Twitter). But Clement’s finest moment may have come when he was completely silent. A little more than two minutes into Solicitor General Donald Verilli’s turn at the bar, Justice Anthony Kennedy interrupted him: “Can you create commerce in order to regulate it?” Kennedy’s query was an almost verbatim recital of Clement’s own talking point, part of the fundamental argument he has made against the individual...

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Justice Scalia to Obama’s Solicitor General: ‘We’re not stupid’ [AUDIO] By Nicholas Ballasy - The Daily Caller 3:39 PM 03/27/2012 ADVERTISEMENT While Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr. made the Obama administration’s case for the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the health-care law Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia interrupted, telling Verrilli, “we’re not stupid.” Justice Elena Kagan, a former solicitor general appointed by President Obama to the high court, sided with Verilli in arguing that young people should be required by the federal government to purchase health insurance because eventually, others will subsidize their health care in the future....

Just finished reading the transcripts of today's oral arguments. I know everyone is saying it was a disaster for the Obamacare mandate. It is clear from the transcript that Justice Kennedy is the swing vote. He expressed both concern and sympathy for the government's argument. His two most emphatic comments are below. Based on these I would NOT count on which way he will rule. First, this is from Kennedy's questioning of the Solicitor General who was defending Obamacare: JUSTICE KENNEDY: "But the reason, the reason this is concerning, is because it requires the individual to do an affirmative act....

Based on the questions posed by the justices today, the possibility that the mandate may be struck down went up sharply.It was a packed house at the Supreme Court today as lawyers Paul Clement and Michael Carvin tried to persuade the justices that the individual mandate — the centerpiece of Obamacare — is unconstitutional. Outside, the loud protests — from both sides of the question — continued. But inside the court was where you’d find a much higher percentage of political movers and shakers. Among them: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), U.S. Attorney General Eric...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Grab sound bite two before we get to sound bites 23 and 24. This is last night. We'll do a little timeline here involving Jeff Toobin. Last night on Charlie Rose, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin -- who, by the way, for those of you old enough to remember, is the son of former NBC News reporter Marlene Sanders. He wrote a big book after the O.J. trial, and he's been at CNN for quite a while. And Charlie Rose said, Jeffrey Toobin, "How big a deal is this Obamacare case at the Supreme Court?" TOOBIN: Epic!...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, there's a piece by Peter Boyer here in The Daily Beast. Peter Boyer once profiled me in Vanity Fair. I know Peter Boyer, and he's a fair guy. I actually really like Peter Boyer. Every time I've seen him... This is way, way back in the early nineties. I haven't stayed in touch with him on a regular basis, but whenever I do... He's still got my e-mail address, and I'll probably hear from him now. He has a piece in the Daily Beast. He works with Tina Brown. Tina Brown ran Vanity Fair back when...

CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin said that it was a rough day for the Obama administration, as lawyers worked to defend the Obamacare's individual mandate. "This was a train wreck for the Obama administration," Tobin said. "This law looks like it's going to be struck down. I'm telling you, all of the predictions including mine that the justices would not have a problem with this law were wrong." Tobin said that U.S. Solicitor General David Verrilli was woefully unprepared in his defense. "I don't know why he had a bad day, he is a good lawyer, he was a perfectly...

While you never know how things are going to turn out, the Supreme Court Justices played their expected roles in today’s hearing on the constitutionality of the individual health care mandate. By the end of the morning session, it appeared clear that the liberals on the Court are, as expected, far more inclined to buy the government’s argument that creation of the mandate is within the powers of Congress while the more conservative Justices have some real problems with the notion. At least that would be one’s conclusion if you base such a determination on the questions posed by the...

Opponents of the individual mandate provision of President Obama's health care law contend that if the government can force you to buy health insurance, its powers of compulsion are virtually unlimited. Chief Justice John Roberts wonders what else Washington can force citizens to buy in this exchange: CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Well, the same, it seems to me, would be true say for the market in emergency services: police, fire, ambulance, roadside assistance, whatever. You don't know when you're going to need it; you're not sure that you will. But the same is true for health care. You don't know if...

The second day of the Obamacare trial at the U.S. Supreme Court has wrapped up. The first day was not filled with much of the meat and potatoes that everyone has waited to see. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott posted this video update about the first day of the trial. This second day of the Obamacare trial is EXACTLY what people have been waiting for. This second day focused on the Constitutionality and Consequences of the individual mandate. Justice Kennedy is believed to be the swing vote. If he goes against Obamacare, then the Healthcare Law gets struck down. If...

If Justice Anthony M. Kennedy can locate a limiting principle in the federal government’s defense of the new individual health insurance mandate, or can think of one on his own, the mandate may well survive. If he does, he may take Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and a majority along with him. But if he does not, the mandate is gone. That is where Tuesday’s argument wound up — with Kennedy, after first displaying a very deep skepticism, leaving the impression that he might yet be the mandate’s savior. If the vote had been taken after Solicitor General Donald...

Day two of oral arguments at the Supreme Court have just finished. MSNBC has just reported the Justices were very skeptical when it came to the constitutionality of ObamaCare. The report also said that although the question of “If the government can mandate the purchase of health insurance, can’t it do anything?” is “extremely complicated,” the Justices were not convinced of the argument given by representation in the courtroom arguing the individual mandate isn’t an overreach of federal government power. More from Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox News: "It appears that Justice Kennedy asked some of the most profound and...

A top legal analyst predicted Tuesday that the Obama administration's healthcare reform legislation seemed likely to be struck down by the Supreme Court. Jeffrey Toobin, a lawyer and legal analyst, who writes about legal topics for The New Yorker said the law looked to be in "trouble." He called it a "trainwreck for the Obama administration." "This law looks like it's going to be struck down. I'm telling you, all of the predictions, including mine, that the justices would not have a problem with this law were wrong," Toobin said Tuesday on CNN. "I think this law is in grave,...

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama has justified the mandate in his health-care law that requires individuals to buy health insurance by arguing that it will eliminate free riders—that is, people who get health care (often from emergency rooms) but, lacking insurance, never pay anything back into the health-care system. "So that's why the individual mandate's important," Obama explained in a speech on Aug. 15, 2011. "Because the basic theory is, look, everybody here at some point or another is going to need medical care, and you can't be a free-rider on everybody else," said Obama. "You can't not have health...

Kennedy apprears to be very critical of Mandate provision. LA times headline "Justices signal possible trouble ahead for health insurance mandate," they note: “Are there any limits,” asked Justice Anthony Kennedy... “If the government can do this, what else can it … do,” Scalia asked? Politico headline, "No Fifth Vote Yet to Uphold," ... "The conservatives all express skepticism, some significant. They doubt that there is any limiting principle.