Showing posts with label ACA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACA. Show all posts

Sunday, May 17, 2015

King v. Burwell

This post has been quite delayed. Around December of last year, I read the question put forward to the Supreme Court in King v. Burwell, and I was slightly perplexed as to why (besides for the obvious politics of the ACA) this case was granted certiorari.

On March 4, 2015 the Oral Arguments were made. Without going too deep into it, March was a busy month for me personally, and honestly I missed the whole proceedings.

The main reason I am writing this article now is that my interest was peeked, when I heard speculation that Chief Justice Roberts may either concur or agree with a majority in Obergefell v. Hodges to buy cover for ruling against the Government in King v. Burwell.

I do not like to tea read, particularly when it comes to the Supreme Court. After listening to quite a few oral arguments, I find speculation to be mostly pointless. That is not to say that oral arguments are pointless to listen to.

The Justices are not advocates; thus it is often difficult to ascertain how they will rule based off of the questions they ask. For example some of the most difficult question during the oral arguments for the Plaintiffs in Obergefell came from Justice Breyer, who in all likelihood will rule in favor of the plaintiffs.


Point One


The crux of  case lies with the reading of sections 1311 and 1321 of the ACA. While I understand that I am typically biased towards Justice Breyer, I cannot find an agreement from the Plaintiffs that satisfies his central point:
"If you're going to elaborate on that, I would appreciate your ­­ in your elaboration, I've read that, and this statute is like the tax code more than it's like the Constitution. There are defined terms, and the words you just used concern a defined term.  As I read the definition, there's a section, Definitions, and it says, quote, The term "Exchange" means, quote, an exchange established under 1311.  And 1311 says, An Exchange shall be a government agency, et cetera, that is established by a State.  Those are the definitions.  So then you look to 1321. And 1321 says, if a State does not set up that Exchange, then the Federal, quote, secretary shall establish and operate such Exchange.  So it says, "The Secretary is to establish and operate such Exchange," the only kind of Exchange to which the Act refers, which is an ­­ quote, "an Exchange established by a State under 1311." That's the definition.  So the statute tells the Secretary, set up such Exchange, namely, a 1311 State Exchange.... and there's nothing else in this statute....so that's throughout what they're talking about.  So what's the problem?"
After quite a long hypothetical from Justice Kagan, which very bluntly explains what a substitution is, Justice Breyer and the attorney for the Plaintiff get into a bit of a discussion on epistemology:
Mr. Carvin:  We implore you to examine these words in the context of the Act as a whole because our argument becomes stronger for five reasons.  To respond to Justice Breyer's point, he says such Exchange connotes that it's the same person doing it. But look at the provision on territorial Exchanges.  It says, territories can establish such Exchanges and then it says, "and shall be treated as a State."  So-- so-- 
Justice Breyer:  Yes, it does.  But you say connote.  No, it's not a question of connotation; it is a question of denotation.  Now what does that mean?  It means that the Federal government, the Secretary, is establishing a thing for the State.  And what is the thing? The thing that it is establishing for the State is defined as an Exchange established by the State. 
Mr. Carvin:  To ­-- 
Justice Breyer:   Now, that person from Mars, who's literal, which I usually am not, but a literalist, I think would have to read it that way.  But if you-- if you're not a literalist, well, at least you could read it that way.  Now you want to go into the context ­­ if you want to go into the context, at that point it seems to me your argument really is weaker.
Based off of Justice Breyer's statement it would appear that the Government's position is support by a literalist's interpretation, which is bad for the Plaintiff. Once again this was my impression before hearing the Oral Arguments.


Point B


When it comes to what Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kennedy said during the proceedings, it was fairly brief.  Neither asked that many questions.  Justice Kennedy asked more questions, but due to how he ruled in the previous decision, it will be interesting to see how he will rule in this case.

When discussing the Plaintiffs position Justice Kennedy raises a very interesting conclusion for the Plaintiffs reading of  the Statute:
"Let me say that from the standpoint of the dynamics of Federalism, it does seem to me that there is something very powerful to the point that if your argument is accepted, the States are being told either create your own Exchange, or we'll send your insurance market into a death spiral.  We'll have people pay mandated taxes which will not get any credit on ­­ on the subsidies.  The cost of insurance will be sky­high, but this is not coercion.  It seems to me that under your argument, perhaps you will prevail in the plain words of the statute, there's a serious constitutional problem if we adopt your argument."
Once again I do not do tea leaf readings, but based on this quote, if Justice Kennedy were to accept the Plaintiffs argument, then he would have to rule that the Federal Exchanges are unconstitutional as promulgated.

And as with Bond v. United States, 572 U.S. (2014) in ambiguity, the Court must read a statute in a way where it does not impinge on the basic Federal-­State relationship.

When it comes to Chief Justice Roberts, once again, besides for procedural issues he was mostly silent.  Perhaps the most interesting question he raised was "If you're right ­­if you're right about Chevron, that would indicate that a subsequent administration could change that interpretation?"

In other words, if the Court does not agree with Justice Breyer, in that the governments reading is not based on ambiguity, and agrees with with government because of the statute being ambiguous, the next administration could take away healthcare for millions of Americans.


Point III


This section actually agrees in part with something Justice Scalia said. Quelle horreur, I know! Justice Scalia raise a very good point about the whole situation:
"What about ­­ what about Congress?  You really think Congress is just going to sit there while ­­ while all of these disastrous consequences ensue.  I mean, how often have we come out with a decision such as the ­­ you know, the bankruptcy court decision?  Congress adjusts, enacts a statute that ­­ that takes care of the problem.  It happens all the time.  Why is that not going to happen here?"
In this context, Justice Scalia is referring to a circumstance where the Court rules in favor of the Plaintiff. but it also begs the why hasn't Congress clarified the situation. Well, other than the fact that the lower courts have ruled in favor of the Government. Congress could easily have fix this problem and made this case moot and also secured health care for 8-9 million Americans.

It's the legislature's job to fix legislation when it is broken or too unclear (when it's beyond Chevron Deference.)  This is a similar argument to when a statute is declared unconstitutional. It is up to the legislature to strike it from the books. It's why Texas still has anti-sodomy laws on their books. It's also the reason why the Voting Rights Act remains disassembled after Shelby County.

It drives me crazy when these situations arise, because they are often times so easy to fix. And yet they seem to never get done.


Liam '15

Sunday, August 17, 2014

To Sue the President (Part III)

This is the second part of an on going series in which I will cover the lawsuit initiated by the House of Representatives again President Obama.

Click here for Part I, Part II


I think it is important to start the deeper analysis by focusing on the question of whether or not an Article III Court can even hear a possible lawsuit by the House of Representatives against the President.


But what of the alternative of suing the president? First, someone with a definite legal grievance against the president, who can show that the president’s actions have actually caused that person (or that organization) some injury, must be available to file the lawsuit.  Second, the courts must be willing to allow themselves to be drawn into the middle of a dispute between the other two branches of the federal government, and must have the power to actually resolve that dispute in a specific constitutional way. Suing a president – that is, the mere fact of filing a lawsuit – is much easier than getting articles of impeachment approved by the House.  But succeeding in such a lawsuit is another matter.

Mr. Denniston [1] rightfully points out that in civil litigation one must always point to some form of injury. I cannot stress this enough. Injury is the foundation of law. Without injury, there is no need for adjudication. The first question that the court needs to be answered is if the elements of a lawsuit have been satisfied.

The problem insofar as analyzing this avenue is that as of this moment the House of Representatives has not put forward a Cause of Action. So we do not know what precisely the House is suing over, which makes it difficult to say with certainty if the elements have been met.

The second point of the article is referring to the Political Question Doctrine, which I find to be just as interesting as the first issue. It is also the area that I want to examine further in depth.


Federal courts will refuse to hear a case if they find it presents a political question.  This phrase is construed narrowly, and it does not stop courts from hearing cases about controversial issues like abortion, or politically important topics like campaign finance.  Rather, the Supreme Court has held that federal courts should not hear cases which deal directly with issues that Constitution makes the sole responsibility of the other branches of government.  Baker v Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962). Therefore, the Court has held that the conduct of foreign relations is the sole responsibility of the executive branch, and cases challenging the way the executive is using that power present political questions. Oetjen v. Central Leather Co., 246 U.S. 297 (1918). Similarly, the Court has held that lawsuits challenging congress' procedure for impeachment proceedings present political questions.  Nixon v. United States, 506 U.S. 224 (1993).

So essentially if the Constitution makes a subject the sole responsibility of  one branch of the government, they cannot be sued by the other in an Article III Court. (A bit of topic, but this is one of the reasons the Constitution establishes impeachment proceedings.And as in Nixon v. United States, Article III Courts cannot hear questions to impeachment proceedings.)

While we still run into the same issues as before, in that the House Representatives has not put forward a Cause of Action, the H. Res. 676 does provide enough guidance to discuss the basics of subject matter jurisdiction.

As anticipated before I read the article by Mr. Denniston, in the next article I will be covering Baker v Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962).


Liam '14


Click here for Part IPart II

Footnotes:

[1] Here is the biography of Lyle Denniston as provided by SCOTUSblog, "Lyle Denniston has been covering the Supreme Court for fifty-six years. In that time, he has covered one-quarter of all of the Justices ever to sit, and he has reported on the entire careers on the bench of ten of the Justices. He has been a journalist of the law for sixty-six years, beginning that career at the Otoe County Courthouse in Nebraska City, Nebraska, in the fall of 1948. He is not an attorney."

Sunday, August 10, 2014

To Sue the President (Part II)

This is the second part of an on going series in which I will cover the lawsuit initiated by the House of Representatives again President Obama.

Click here for Part I.Part III

In this article I will be reviewing H. Res.676

On July 30, 2014 H. Res. 676 passed the House of Representatives with a vote of 225 - 201, near completely down party lines.It was introduced on July 22, by Pete Sessions of Texas.

The text of the resolution reads as following:

H. Res. 676
In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
July 30, 2014. 


    Resolved, That the Speaker is authorized to initiate or intervene in one or more civil actions on behalf of the House of Representatives in a Federal court of competent jurisdiction to seek any appropriate relief regarding the failure of the President, the head of any department or agency, or any other officer or employee of the executive branch, to act in a manner consistent with that official's duties under the Constitution and laws of the United States with respect to implementation of any provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, title I or subtitle B of title II of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, including any amendment made by such provision, or any other related provision of law, including a failure to implement any such provision.
    Sec. 2.  The Speaker shall notify the House of Representatives of a decision to initiate or intervene in any civil action pursuant to this resolution.
    Sec. 3. (a) The Office of the General Counsel of the House of Representatives, at the direction of the Speaker, shall represent the House in any civil action initiated, or in which the House intervenes, pursuant to this resolution, and may employ the services of outside counsel and other experts for this purpose.
    (b) The chair of the Committee on House Administration shall cause to be printed in the Congressional Record a statement setting forth the aggregate amounts expended by the Office of General Counsel on outside counsel and other experts pursuant to subsection (a) on a quarterly basis. Such statement shall be submitted for printing not more than 30 days after the expiration of each such period.

There are several interesting issues that creep up in the Resolution. It sets forth that the scope of the civil action is limited to portions of the ACA including action for failing to implement a provision. It also also for multiple actions against the Executive Branch. So the lawsuit(s) is because the President either enforced or didn't enforce the ACA, or both? Ach Nee!

The Office of the General Counsel of the House of Representatives will represent the House, but the resolution allows for the services of outside counsel. How they will pay for outside counsel is at this point anyone's guess. Perhaps they will raise taxes or borrow from China.

So if Speaker Boehner elects to go forward with a lawsuit (or several) based upon the Resolution, we still do not know what he is suing over. There is no Cause of Action with in the Resolution which is highly problematic. There must be a reason for bring forward litigation. The House voted to sue the President without a Cause of Action. It's not good enough to say "we don't like Obama, and we don't like the ACA; therefore lawsuit." It just doesn't fucking work that way.

It frustratingly stupid. It's kind of like if a grad student submitted a midterm paper that was lacking a coherent thesis paragraph... but this is more important. Perhaps it's more like submitting your tax filings but instead of numbers there are emoticons. And damn near every Republican signed off on it.

Hahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaahahah stupid bastards....There are also no end dates so if a Republican President is ever in office and fails to implement the ACA or a section thereof and the Democrats regain the house. Wham!

The lack of a Cause of Action in the Resolution does not mean a lawsuit will automatically fail; it is the just an exemplar of how disreputable the 113th House Leadership is.


Liam '14

Part I.Part III

To Sue the President (Part I)

This is the first Part of an on going series in which I will cover the lawsuit initiated by the House of Representatives again President Obama.

Click here for Part II.

In this article I will layout my objectives for the series. I will be covering the legislation passed by the House of Representatives, case law from previous lawsuits against a sitting president, the various documents submitted to the court, and any court proceedings that may occur.

I will also make a greater effort than normal to reach out to other sources for legal opinion on the topic.

From the start of the series I do not believe that a lawsuit will succeed against the President; however, I do want to take this more seriously that what what the circus show deserves, and if I discover a legitimate cause of action, I will acknowledge it. 

From what I currently understand of the situation, the biggest part of the debate is whether or not an Article III court has subject matter jurisdiction to hear the lawsuit in first place. If the court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case, there will be roughly seven more articles to this series. The House Resolution, 3 Court Cases, Cause of Action, A Response, and then a Court Order. So yeah, around seven. Obviously if the Court accepts the suit it will be a longer series.

I will also try to make as few Boehner/Boner jokes as I possibly can and will also limit myself from calling Speaker Boehner, John of Orange, to a minimum.


Liam '14

Part II, Part III