one is i think the chief justice is very sensitive to the perception of a court becoming increasingly politicized. whether it s true or not, there is a public perception of that after the citizens united case, so i think he s keenly sensitive to that. secondly, i think in his confirmation hearing he famously said i m going to call a ball a ball, a strike a strike, i m not a pitcher, and i m not a batter. i don t think he wants to overturn a major social reform legislation passed by the congress, particularly when it s being done on a very controversial basis to trim back the commerce clause which has historically been interpreted to give congress almost plenary power. you have conservative luminaries out there like lawrence silverman, charles freeh, jeffrey sutton, all of whom have said megyn: yeah, but as jay points out, you have judges on the
events. well, megyn, think about this as the follow crumb point for the election, the 24-hour period on which the shape of the election hereafter we know will depend. the decision on this health law changes literally everything in the discussion. whatever the supreme court does, regardless of whether they affirm the whole thing, cut out its core provision which is forcing all americans to purchase insurance or if they take down the whole thing, the president is going to have to be digging his way out of problems. there are no real good political outcomes for him here, so he s certainly worried about that, but he has a practical battle that he s engaged in with congress about defending his controversial attorney general in this case that has blown up in a way that, certainly, the white house did not apparently predict. so this is the crucible through which the president has to pass, and his success or failure in the fall will depend on large part about how this next 24 hours
before for issuing what many perceived as a warning to the high court. another controversial remark. just down the road on capitol hill high-profile democrats holding a news conference on tomorrow s house vote to hold the attorney general of the united states, eric holder, in contempt of congress, in criminal contempt of congress. mr. holder has refused to hand over numerous documents on a gun-running sting that may have led to the death of at least one border patrol agent, brian terry, not to mention hundreds down in mexico. and while many democrats have sided with the attorney general, we are hearing close to two dozen democrats are prepared to break ranks and vote to hold the attorney general in contempt, that just breaking this hour. and that brings us to 2 p.m. eastern. capitol hill, a house committee will begin the contempt process against the attorney general. this after a pair of last-ditch meetings between the obama administration and top house republicans failed to
for. this is setting the rule for this subject, period, end of for. i think judge sutton s argument really is the killer because this is a market everybody is in and it just says, how you have to pay for something that everyone is getting. caller: professor, how do you respond to the challenges that if congress can regulate this and tell americans they have to buy something, that there won t be a limit on federal power, they can tell you you have to work out or eat broccoli or by other things to make you healthier? you have heard that argument. how do you respond to that one? it s totally bogus because, as judge sutton pointed out, everybody is not in the working-out or in the broccoli market, but everybody is in the health care market. or 95% of the population. so they re not being forced into a market they are not in. they are being told, being
the primary case before the supreme court this week was brought by 26 state, challenging the health care law on several points. texas is one of those states and joining us to tell us why he doesn t believe the law passes constitutional muster, greg abbott. great to have you. shannon, great to be here. caller: you are one of the states that is challenging this. of course, at core is the mandate, the dig big debate. we had a harvard professor saying that everybody s involved in health care at some point in their lives. so it is a stream of commerce and congress has every right to regulate t. you say, not so. not so. i want to applaud the 25 other states that joined with us in this lawsuit. the reason we won in the district court and we won in the court of appeals, this mandate is different and unprecedented and will change the way that government operates. if congress can force someone to go out and purchase health care insurance, they can force machine to go out and purchase any