Forget OBAMAcare, the old appellation for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says we ought to call the ACA law SCOTUScare instead, mostly thanks to his irresponsible colleague John Roberts.
Chief Justice Roberts keeps frustrating Scalia with irksome rulings about the ACA. First Roberts said the ACA is legal, a notion that perplexed Scalia. Then this week Roberts wrote the opinion (in King v. Burwell) saving the ACA from its own wording. Infuriating Scalia, Roberts and five other justices chose to interpret the lawmakers’ intent, rather than a more strict interpretation based on what was actually written on the page. Scalia said, in considering the majority opinion: “Words no longer have meaning.” On a lighter note: Scalia’s use of the term SCOTUS, an acronym for the Supreme Court of the United States, was apparently the first use of that common nickname in official Supreme Court proceedings. “We should start calling this law SCOTUScare,” Scalia opined. No word as to whether Mr. Obama is willing to share the name.