Quote:
Originally Posted by zimmy
Well, then it will pass, since it is constitutional based on precedent. The real question is whether the supreme court will overturn settled law. Many are obviously in favor of that.
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Precedent is supposed to be binding only on the lower federal district and appeal courts. Even in those courts, judges often don't follow precedent. The ninth circuit is famous for abandoning precedent. The Supreme Court is not bound to follow precedent. If it were, the current interpretations of "commerce," "regulate," and "interstate" would never have happended. The first 150 years of SC jurisprudence understood those words, as well as many others, to be something quite different than the meanings they took on during the FDR court which, obviously, didn't follow precedent. Nor is there even precedent for adjudication upholding federal power to require individuals to buy commercial products, nor any precedent for it to create commerce that did not previously exist. So there is not really a settled law to be overturned. But if there were, or is, the SC is not bound to follow it, especially if such law was "settled" unconstitionally. Bad case law not only can be reversed, it should be.