The Fabulous Four

Steve Benen on the scary part of today’s Supreme Court ruling:

And yet, as of this morning, four justices — Alito, Kennedy, Scalia, and Thomas — insisted on doing exactly that. The four dissenters demanded that the Supreme Court effectively throw out the entirety of the law — the mandate, the consumer protections, the tax cuts, the subsidies, the benefits, everything.

To reach this conclusion, these four not only had to reject a century of Commerce Clause jurisprudence, they also had ignore the Necessary and Proper clause, and Congress’ taxation power. I can’t read Chief Justice John Roberts’ mind, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the extremism of the four dissenters effectively forced him to break ranks — had Kennedy been willing to strike down the mandate while leaving the rest of the law intact, this may well have been a 5-4 ruling the other way.

Roberts’ motivations notwithstanding, it’s important that Americans understand that there are now four justices on the Supreme Court who effectively want to overturn the 20th century. Based on the flimsiest of arguments, the four dissenters want to kill progressive legislation basically because their political ideologies tell them to do so.

There are some who argue that this year’s presidential election isn’t especially important. I hope those who believe this consider what today’s court minority was prepared to do, and what they will do with just one more vote.

I have a lot of criticisms of this administration, but anyone who says that this election doesn’t matter or that Romney and Obama are basically the same need to think again. The radical right on the Supreme Court and in Congress want to return the nation to the Gilded Age. Obama does not. That’s a pretty freaking huge difference.