Wiretap: The frivolous and enormous Obamacare case

Jeffrey Toobin writes in the New Yorker that everything about the Obamacare case before the Supreme Court is small — except for the stakes. How big are the stakes in what is basically a frivolous case? Toobin puts it this way: “In a human sense as much as in a legal one, the stakes in King v. Burwell dwarf those of the immigration lawsuit and, indeed, most cases in the history of the Supreme Court.”

Sens. Orrin Hatch, Lamar Alexander and John Barrasso (the more the merrier) co-write an op-ed in the Washington Post, saying that the GOP has a contingency plan in case the Supreme Court rules against Obamacare. Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent reads the op-ed and can’t find even a hint of a plan.

All of your Iran nuclear-deal questions answered by the inimitable Jeffrey Goldberg. Via the Atlantic.

The suspect in the Colorado Springs bombing case told investigators he was targeting an accountant with whom he had beef. But the accountant been dead for six months and records show he never even worked in the building. The NAACP actually does work in the building, and its president, Henry Allen Jr., doesn’t buy the suspect’s professed motive. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney in Colorado John Walsh says “The investigation continues regarding the motive for the attack.” Via the Denver Post.

Colorado Springs police are looking to ban 12 people from the downtown area, citing crime prevention as their primary motive. But documents obtained by the ACLU of Colorado and reviewed by the Gazette show that all 12 are homeless people with only petty offenses on their records. 

Did Hillary Clinton’s exclusive use of personal email as Secretary of State break the rules? Via the New York Times.

Clinton may have used her private email, but the Twittersphere jokes have all gone public. Via the Washington Post.

Byron York writes that Scott Walker has shot to the head of the pack much more quickly than he expected. Now he has to catch up with himself. Via the Washington Examiner.

It’s Tamir Rice’s fault. Really? Via the Washington Post.

If you prefer to be depressed in the morning, read Matthew Yglesias’s essay in Vox on why American democracy is doomed.

A philosopher’s joke? One philosophy professor at CU Boulder is battling a lawsuit for allegedly retaliating against a student who reported sexual misconduct. Another is fighting with his own lawsuit, alleging the school illegally retaliated against him after requesting accommodations for his disability (which is described in the suit as “major depression with psychotic features.”) Plaintiff Dan Kaufman said he made a “philosopher’s joke” in response to the department chair’s asking him if he were suicidal, after which he was banned from campus. The philosopher’s joke? According to the suit, it went like this: “Kaufman assured [department chair Andy Cowell] that he would not try to kill himself or anyone else, including Cowell, ‘unless he was truly evil (or) had Hitler’s soul.'” Via the Daily Camera. 

The hits on Bill O’Reilly just keep on coming. This time CNN plays a tape of a phone conversation that pretty much shows O’Reilly has lied about being at the scene when an associate of Lee Harvey Oswald killed himself. Via Politico.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Win, lose or draw, the controversy over Obamacare will never end. Ask me why, and I could answer by saying, it’s politics. But the honest answer is, I don’t know.

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