The Supreme Court Didn't Jump

So everybody on God's green earth has an opinion on The Opinion. So I might as well throw a few thoughts on the massive pile.

My reaction? Relief, mostly.

Not because I love, love, love every clause and provision of Obamacare, or because I've longed all my life to see the Supreme Court pull back the reins on the Commerce Clause. Or because I don't work for CNN.

But I basically had this picture in my head of that bleak, churning political morass we now have in this country, that swirling black hole that's basically sucking in any and all of our fleeting hopes for actually solving big, nagging problems, while spitting out bile in 30-second batches. And I saw the Supreme Court standing on a cliff above it.

Almost everybody figured a majority of the justices would gleefully dive right in, likely striking down much or all of the Affordable Care Act despite the view of so many legal experts that the it was basically constitutional. Precedent, shmecident. They would be motivated by partisan politics, and would merely need to figure out a way to make the law fit those motivations.

But then, this morning, it turns out they didn't jump. Surprise. Sure, it was 5-4 and complicated, with a differing cast of consensus characters weighing on on different provisions. But it was also a fairly modest opinion, a finely focused ruling, as its author, Chief Justice John Roberts nicely summed up on its final page:

“The Framers created a Federal Government of limited powers and assigned to this court the duty of enforcing those limits. The court does so today. But the court does not express any opinion on the wisdom of the Affordable Care Act. Under the Constitution, that judgment is reserved to the people.”

So the court looked at the law, found, for the most part, that its pieces fit within constitutional boundaries, and let it stand. And if you don't like it, call your congressman or the White House.

And that means we don't have to endure an 40-megaton explosion from people on the left, who know better, mimicking what we've usually heard from folks on the right, who know better, about an illegitimate ruling and horrid judicial activism and tyrants in robes legislating from the bench. Unless you count Sen. Kent Sorensen.

Everybody got something. Obama backers get a win, or more importantly, avoided a disastrous loss. Although now Obamacare is Obamatax. So there's that.

Conservatives gotta like the part limiting Congress' ability to use the Commerce Clause to get mandates all over us. Gov. Terry Branstad panned the ruling, even though it places much tighter limits on Congress' ability to coerce states into expanding Medicaid by threatening to pull gobs of funding. Carrots are fine, but not sticks. You'd think that would get some love from a guv. Guess not. It may end up being the most important and enduring aspect of the ruling.

The ruling shakes up the political landscape, but doesn't change it much. Republicans will continue shouting "Repeal!" Democrats will continue to play defense. And Americans will still dislike the law even though they like many of its components. Oh, and tens of millions of people without health coverage may still get it. Almost forgot.

So, instead of jumping, the court simply threw the whole big messy health care issue back into the morass. Thanks?

Maybe you have an opinion to toss on the pile?