the court s affirmation of the sweeping over haul of health care gave president obama a victory that had been sought by democratic presidents for the last 75 years. whether you side with the five justices in the majority or the four in the minority. a couple of facts we can all agree on, the affordable care act is constitutional, and number two, thanks to that decision, 32 million people will soon have health insurance. then again, if you are senator rand paul, why let a little thing like facts get in the way of your opinion? he responded to the court s decision, saying just because a couple of people on the supreme court declare something constitutional does not make it so. the whole thing remains unconstitutional. well, i guess he s sort of right in thatç it s not a couple of people, but a majority of the nine people on the supreme court that have to make that declaration. and that happened and that is what makes it so. you can subtract from the 32 million that now have the legal
a 5-4 decision in the end, it was john roberts, the chief justice appointed by president bush who saved the health care law. senator obama voted against roberts confirmation in 2005. roberts went against his four conservative justices ruling that the individual mandate, which requires people to buy health insurance was a tax, not a penalty that falls under the congressional power to levy taxes. a harsh oped said the remarkable decision upholding the affordable care act is shot through with confusion. the mandate that s really a tax except when it isn t and the government whose powers are limit except when they aren t. one thing is clear, this was a one man show and that man was john roberts. our senior legal analyst jeff toobin joins us now. he was in the courtroom when the decision was announced. was it chaotic? it was the opposite of chaotic, soledad. i ve been privileged to cover a lot of news events and i have never been in a room like that, there were not air molecules
to strike down health care reform and democrats seem to be worried that is going to happen. do you have a prediction, and how do you think the country should greet the potential striking down of health reform? what should we do next if that s what the supreme court does tomorrow? no, i don t have a prediction. i don t know what they ll do tomorrow. i have my own view that based on the legal precedence, it s clear that the affordable care act is constitutional. but whether or not five justices in the supreme court will decide that that s the case, i don t know. you know, i want to use this, we re going to have to see what happens on affordable care before we figure out what the right thing to do is by way of response. but we need to use this moment to reflect on the importance of the supreme court and who sits on the supreme court. it s not so long ago that we had the citizens united opinion and saw just this week see it re-enforced that the same five justices are saying, hey, corpora
striking down of health reform? what should we do next if that ç what the supreme court does tomorrow? no, i don t have a prediction. i don t know what they ll do tomorrow. i have my own view that based on the legal precedence, it s clear that the affordable care act is constitutional. but whether or not five justices in the supreme court will decide that that s the case, i don t know. you know, i want to use this, we re going to have to see what happens on affordable care before we figure out what the right thing to do is by way of response. but we need to use this moment to reflect on the importance of the supreme court and who sits on the supreme court. it s not so long ago that we had the citizens united poib and saw just this week see it reenforced that the same five justices are saying, hey, corporate interests can just take the electoral process by the throat and squeeze as hard as they want. you know, the supreme court is
tax code and things like that. one of the things everybody is on their seats about is what the supreme court is going to do tomorrow. it seems like the republicans think the supreme court is going to strike down health care reform and democrats seem to be worried that is going to happen. do you have a prediction, and how do you think the country should greet the potential striking down of health reform? what should we do next if that s what the supreme court does tomorrow? no, i don t have a prediction. i don t know what they ll do tomorrow. i have my own view that based on the legal precedence, it s clear that the affordable care act is constitutional. but whether or not five justices in the supreme court will decide that that s the case, i don t know. you know, i want to use this, we re going to have to see what happens on affordable care before we figure out what the right thing to do is by way of response. but we need to use this moment to reflect on the importance of the supreme