When former President Donald Trump nominated Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court last fall, many Democrats warned she would sink Obamacare.
Barrett blew that prediction out of the water on Thursday when she voted with the court’s 7-2 majority to uphold the Affordable Care Act. For people who had been watching one of the year’s biggest Supreme Court cases closely, her decision came as no surprise.
SUPREME COURT FINDS TEXAS HAS NO STANDING TO CHALLENGE OBAMACARE
“There was nothing in Justice Barrett’s career as a judge or a scholar that suggested she would be remotely sympathetic to the arguments presented in this case,” said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University.
Barrett was never likely to be a pivotal vote in a case that was almost certain to fail from the start, Adler told the Washington Examiner. And, he said, given the fact Barrett has voted in a non-ideological manner throughout her career, there was little reason to believe she would change with the Obamacare case.
“In her brief time on the court, Justice Barrett has shown herself to be a thoughtful, independent jurist who carefully considers the merits of the cases before her,” Adler said, adding that anyone who painted her otherwise “owes her an apology.”
Barrett faced fierce opposition during her confirmation hearings for alleged zealotry on the Obamacare case, prompting protesters to gather on Capitol Hill to speak against her nomination. In Congress, many Democrats characterized Barrett as the possible decisive vote against former President Barack Obama’s signature achievement.
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse was one of the strongest voices against her. He argued Barrett would be “a judicial torpedo” to Obamacare. Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden was also a harsh critic, telling reporters on the campaign trail Barrett was dangerous because “she wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered equally dire predictions.
“If this nominee is confirmed, millions of families’ healthcare will be ripped away in the middle of a pandemic that has infected 7 million Americans and killed over 200,000 people in our country,” she said before Barrett’s confirmation hearings began.
But when the court actually heard arguments in the case, just days after the presidential election, nearly every justice, including Barrett, showed strong skepticism to the challenge raised by Texas and joined by 17 other states and the Trump administration.
At the time, many of the justices and attorneys involved in the case focused on whether the individual mandate, which Congress eliminated in 2017, was severable from the rest of the law. The challengers argued because the mandate no longer existed, the whole law became unconstitutional. The justices were unconvinced by that argument.
Barrett did not focus so much on severability as she did on the question of standing, which is how the case was eventually decided. Along with several other justices, she argued because the mandate was set at zero, it was hard to conceive how Texas could prove it was harmed by the act.
Justice Stephen Breyer made an argument along these lines in his majority opinion, which Barrett joined.
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Upholding Obamacare is not necessarily an outcome many Republicans desire, but the case revealed Barrett has integrity, according to Carrie Severino, president of Judicial Crisis Network. Any suggestion she would strike it down was a smear campaign, she added.
“That was crazy talk, and the Left knew it,” Severino said.
