Read Blog for Arizona | Politics from a Liberal Viewpoint for more about Courts & Law

When is a ‘crisis’ not a crisis? When it is GOPropaganda

July 24, 2014 by AZ BlueMeanie

He’s baaack! Suffering under the delusion that the GOP really wants him and needs him, that scion of the Bush Dynasty, Jeb Bush, along with his own version of “Bush’s brain,” Clint Bolick from the “Kochtopus” Death Star, the Goldwater Institute, have an op-ed today in the Wall Street Journal (pay wall) detailing their solution to immigration reform and the influx of child refugees from Central America.

“We’ve had enough Bushes.” – Barbara Bush

Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal blog dissects this piece in Jeb’s Tin Ear:

Today [Jeb’s] got an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with conservative movement warhorse Clint Bolick about the refugee crisis. Most of it is standard GOP rhetoric about the fecklessness of the Obama administration and the accidental impact of Anti-Trafficking legislation. But then, at the very end, the authors run off the rails:

The GOP’s war on healthcare

July 23, 2014 by AZ BlueMeanie

Q. What’s the difference between a Ukrainian rebel with a rocket launcher and a lawyer challenging the Obamacare subsidies?

A. The Ukrainian doesn’t intend to hurt innocent people.

So says Andre Koppelman at the Balkinization blog and The New Republic about the GOP’s war on healthcare. Obamacare Opponents Are Hurting 4.5 Million Workers to Win a Political War:

The legal argument against the subsidies is weak on the merits. But merits aside, the case raises important questions about the ethics of political warfare. When is it acceptable to deliberately aim to harm huge numbers of people in order to score a symbolic point? The point here is to discredit Obamacare; the casualties are simply a means to that end.

Courts of Appeal split on semantics and statutory contruction of ‘ObamaCare’

July 22, 2014 by AZ BlueMeanie

The New England Journal of Medicine in a report published last week estimated that some 20 million Americans had been covered by the Affordable Care Act aka “ObamaCare.”

Early this morning, Tea-Publicans in Congress were celebrating the possibility that millions of their fellow American citizens would lose their health insurance after a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the federal subsidies only apply to states that created their own health insurance exchanges. That could cripple the insurance exchanges and the ability of Americans to afford health insurance. What today’s Obamacare ruling reveals about the GOP.

Read the D.C. Circuit Court Opinion in Halbig v. Burwell Here (.pdf).

The TanMan’s lawsuit: comedy ensues at committee hearing

July 20, 2014 by AZ BlueMeanie

Invariably it happens: someone will reach into his breast pocket and pull out his “pocket Constitution” and deem himself expert enough to argue constitutional law from the “black letter law” of his pocket Constitution.

Of course, this is complete nonsense.

There are libraries full of statutes enacted by Congress and the congressional record of their debates regarding the meaning and purpose and constitutionality of such laws. There are libraries full of administrative rules and regulations enacted by executive department agencies to implement such laws, as well as administrative law judge opinions and executive orders. And there are libraries full of court opinions interpreting all of this and deciding whether it is constitutional.

So when someone whips out their pocket Constitution, they should imagine that the Library of Congress and all of its contents are attached to it as an appendix to explain and interpret the Constitution. Their “School House Rock” knowledge of the Constitution is a deeply uninformed opinion.

Senate Rules Committee to take up DISCLOSE Act on Wednesday

July 20, 2014 by AZ BlueMeanie

The Senate Rules will hold a hearing on Wednesday, July 23, on the DISCLOSE Act and “the need for expanded public disclosure of funds raised and spent to influence elections.” Hearing Notice. 10 a.m., 301 Russell Senate Office Building.

Roll Call reported earlier, Democrats Reintroduce DISCLOSE Act:

Senate Democrats broadened their assault on unrestricted political money Tuesday, introducing a campaign finance disclosure bill that its authors said will be voted on this year.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had already promised a vote on a constitutional amendment that would let Congress and the states curb political spending. Democrats now plan to also vote on the disclosure bill known as the DISCLOSE Act, which Republicans blocked via filibuster in 2010 and 2012.

“Since the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision, a torrent of dark money has swept through our political system, giving corporations and billionaires the ability to buy and sell elections,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., at a Capitol Hill news conference. Whitehouse was joined by Senate Rules Chairman Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and by Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.