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ForsythOpinion
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Three new
chapters in
story of U.S.
[
TOM CRAWFORD.
Columnist
You won't often see
S 0 manyfgiimjy:making
events cxgfim,ed:into :
such a small period of
time, but that was the
case last week with ;
three huge stories break
ing in a little l?"m
30 hours. That’'sa™s . .
bonanza for those'of us.
who work in the news=
industry. oo
First, the Supreme -
Court turned down the
last serious legal chal- =
lenge to the Affordable" -
Care Act, ruling that the
federal government can
continue providing sub
“sidies to help people
retain their health insur
ance coverage.
That was a big deal,
especially for the esti
mated 400,000
Georgians who can now
afford health care cover
age because they get
those federal subsidies
to help pay for it.
Without that coverage,
some of them most hke
ly would have died from
not being able to get the
medical treatment they
need.
The next day, the
Supreme Court followed
with its landmark deci
sion that declared
unconstitutional all of
the state prohibitions
against same-sex mar
riages. .
These gay marriage
bans had been knocked
down in 36 states:
Georgia was part of the
dwindling pool of 14
states that still banned
it, but the high court
said “I don’t” to that.
. There were some
‘angry reactions to the
decision in various
locales, such as the ren
egade judges in
Alabama who said they
would defy the court’s
decision.
There was presidential
candidate Mike
Huckabee declaring, “I
will not acquiesce to an
imperial court any more
than our founders acqui
esced to an imperial
British monarch. We
must resist and reject
judicial tyranny.” -
There was also at least
one evangelist preacher
who vowed he would set
himself on fire rather
than preside over a
Same-SeX-Marriage, -«
althoughhe Tatér toned
down the fiery rhetoric.
To their immense
credit, Gov. Nathan
Deal and Attorney
General Sam Olens were
the adults in the room
on this one.
They quickly issued
public statements
affirming they would
abide by the ’court‘s
decision, even though
they disagreed with it.
“The state of Georgia
is subject to the laws of
the United Statesand =
we will follow ggn,"
Deal said. o, s
At the same time, one
of the first gay marriag
es in Georgia was being
performed at the Fulton
County Courthouse, just
a stone’s throw from the
capitol offices of Deal
and Olens.
State Court Judge
Jane Morrison made it
official for Emma
Foulkes and Petrina
Bloodworth of Atlanta,
two women who had
been together for 10
years. 3
“It means everything
Americany’ P
said. “This is the best
day of my life.” :
- Unlike the Supreme
Court decision of 61
Jyears ago that over- .
turned school desegre
gation, the latest court
ruling on gay marriage
isn’t going to trigger
massive resistance
among Georgia’s elected
leaders.
To bring it all to an
emotional close,
President Barack Obama
delivered the eulogy at
the Charleston funeral
of Clementa Pinckney,
one of eight black peo- -
ple in South Carolina
murdered by a white
supremacist who =
thought he could start a
race war.
Obama’s powerful
speech brought into
sharp focus the week’s
third major development
—the efforts in some
Southern states to get
rid of the last official
vestiges of the
Confederate battle flag,
a move that is long over
due.
“Removing the flag
from this state’s capitol
would not be an act of
_political correctness; it
would not be an insult to
the valor of Confederate
soldiers,” Obama said.
“It would simply be an
acknowledgment that
the cause for which they
fought —the cause of
slavery — was wrong.
The imposition of Jim
Crow after the Civil
War, the resistance to
civil rights for all people
was wrong. :
“By taking down that
flag, we express God’s
grace.”
Last week’s series of
momentous events were
very much a part of the
basic flow-of American
ey o
The story of America
has-been that we move
slowly but always for
ward to extend the rights
and freedoms of the few
to the many. :
Morg people now
have access to health
care. Gays have the
same rights as hetero
sexuals to join their
partners in matrimony.
‘The hurtful symbols of
the time when black
people were enslaved
-are being removed.
As we prepare to cele
brate the birthday of this
great nation on July
Fourth, we have some
new chapters of that
American story to dis
cuss. ;
Tom Crawford is editor of
The Georgia Report, an
Internet news serviceat
gareport.com that reports
on state government and
politics. He can be reached
at tcrawford@gareport.
Send a letter to the editor to PO, Box 210 Cumming, GA 30028; fax it te (770) 889-6017; of e-mail it to editor@forsythnews.com.
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High court lets Obama administration
say words don't mean what they say
For most people; words mean
what they say. But not necessarily for
a majority of Supreme Court justices
in two important decisions handed
down Thursday.
In the most prominent, King v.
Burwell, Chief Justice John Roberts,
writing for a 6-3 majority, ruled that -
the words “established by the state”
mean “established by the state or the
federal govenment.”
In a second decision, Texas
Department of Housing and -
Community Affairs v. The Inclusive
Communities Project, Justice
Anthony Kennedy, writing for a 5-4
majority, ruled that the omission in
the 1968 Fair Housing Act of words
banning acts that have a disparate
impact on people of different races
didn’t matter. The plaintiff could
bring a lawsuit anyway. S
Both cases were victories for the
Obama administration and for the : .
proposition that the executive branch
can rewrite laws to say what it wants
them to say.
The results are particularly strik
ing, since neither case was achal- -
lenge based on the Constitution.
They simply required the courtto -
interpret the words of a statute,
words that can be changed by an act
of Congress.
But waiting around for Congress
to act is not the modus operandi of
the second-term Obama presidency.
Results are what the president
wants, and if the plain meaning of
words has to be ignored -— well, the
Red Queeén from “‘Alice in
Wonderland™ provides guidance on
that. :
A contrary decision in King v.
Burwell would certainly have had .. .
the chief justice noted. 3
Obamacare, as passed by
Congress, provided for insurance
subsidies only in states that estab--
lished their own health exchanges.
It specifically did not authorize
subsidies in states that took the other -
option of using an exchange set up
by the federal government.
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This is-a page of opinion —ours, yours and -
others. Signed columas and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may notreflect our views. - e
MICHAEL BARONE
Columnist .
Obamacare fans dismiss this as a
drafting error, an unexplainable ~.*
glitch. But it’s very'much in line with
the way Congress has drafted numer
ous statutes. _
Under settled constitutional law,
Congress can't require state govern
ments to do things. But it can pro
vide money on the condition the :
states do what it wants. 43 :
And since the 19305, the states
have usually accepted such bargains.
That’s how, for example, we had a’
55 mph speed Timit for several years
and have now a 21-year-old drinking
age. ey
¥ you don’t accept those condi- .
‘tions, you don’t get federal highway -
(and mass transit and bike path) -
money. ; gt
But much to the surprise of
Obamacare’s framers, notably MIT
economist Jonathan Gruber, 36 states
declined to establish their own health
exchanges. e e O
So if the Supreme Court interpret
‘ed the words “established by the
state” to mean “‘established by.the--
state,” some 6 million people would -
have lost their health insurance sub
sidies. BT
Barack Obama rightly. pointed ouf”
that'in that case, Congress could
restore the-subsidies by-adding four
words — “or the federal govern- - .
.
-+ But fican-map]‘ < e
‘Congress would insist on .o&r' T
changes, though Republicans don’t
seem to have reached consensus on - .
exactly what, . Gk enlut il
“That could have meant a year-long
battle between a statite-writing §
Congress and a veto-wiglding presi:
dent, The court’s decision spares
them that battle. o Wi
The chief justice’s King v: Burwell
* decision was crisply written and
assertive. Justice Kennedy's .~ .
Inclusive Communities decision, in
contrast, was almost apologetic. =
.. The issue was not'whether the Fair
Housing Act prohibits intentional -
" discrimination — everyone agrees -
that it does. The issue was whether
the fact that more monies go'to heav
ily black (or white ar Hispanic)
neighborhqods than to others —
“disparate impact” — was enough to
trigger a lawsuit. é .
" 'The Obarna 4dministration has
scrambled to keep this issue away
from the court, lest it frustrate -
HUD's program to “diversify” afflu--
ent neighborhoods with low-income
BORSINE. = £t :
" Justice Kennedy allowed that, but
said it didn’t justify imposing racial:
- quotas dr preferenices. But those are
_empty words. Universities aren’t” -~ *
- supposed so employ quotas in admis
sions, but hey.do. HUD will happily
dothesame; . o o
. These two decisions expanding the
. power of the executive branch exas
perated Republicans. But they also
raise issues that hurt Democrats. .
_Ope is.Qhamiacare; which contin
ues to be unpopular. Republican. - ...
presidential candidates will be called
.on to propose alternatives. - ,
. “Fheothier is HUD's fair hotising
“Thitiative. A'Rasmussén poli released
Thursday had 83 percent of likely
voters saying, *lts not.the govern-.
~_paent’s jeb 16 diversify neighbor- -
" hoods in Aimerica $o that people of
differentincome levels live together.”
-Fhié coutt may let the executive
say that wefds don’t mean what they
.* nr*-uf: % . e mlnanew ‘
T
" M_icbaéw‘a}ane,*sanintmfifié:al ana
lyst at The Washington Examifer, is a.
resident fellow at the American” . -
Enterprise Institute, @ Fox News
~Channel contributor and a co-aufhor
of “The Almanac of American -
POINBSH iommndins o, - 1t s ©