Kagan Sits in Judgment of Obamacare—Despite Cheering Its Passage and Assigning Lawyer to Defend It

(CNSNews.com) – When the Supreme Court on Monday began hearing oral arguments in the cases challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—AKA “Obamacare”—Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan showed up to hear the arguments and gave no indication she would recuse herself from judging the cases even though she had cheered enactment of Obamacare as an Obama political appointee and had personally assigned her top deputy in the Obama Justice Department to defend the law in federal court.

A federal law, 28 USC 455, says a Supreme Court justice must recuse from “any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned” or anytime he has “expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy” while he “served in governmental employment.”

During her confirmation process in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kagan assured the committee in written responses to its questionnaire that she would follow the “letter and spirit” of 28 U.S.C. 455.

On Monday, the court heard lawyers’ arguments about whether the Anti-Injunction Act of 1867 prevents the court from hearing cases challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare until after someone has had to pay a “penalty” for not buying the health-insurance mandated by the law. Kagan sat in the court as the lawyers presented their arguments and asked questions about the Anti-Injunction Act’s application to the substance of Obamacare.

At one point, Kagan told one of the lawyers that, in Obamacare, Congress had enacted a “regulatory command” to individuals to buy insurance.

Read More at CNS News By Terence P. Jeffrey