W. James Antle III

Are John Roberts’ conservative critics more interested in the results than the law? Before the July 4th holiday, some of his conservative and libertarian defenders made that case. Matthew Franck tees off on Jan Crawford’s Roberts vote-switching story: But what…

In a round-up of conservative reactions to the Supreme Court’s Obamacare ruling, an Economist blogger (I think Will Wilkinson based on initials and dateline, but the Economist is funny about bylines) mentions my column from yesterday and concludes, “Of course…

Judging from the comments, there seems to be widespread misunderstanding of my post yesterday about what Republicans could have done differently in the run-up to Obamacare. I reject completely the idea that negotiating with the Democrats in 2009-10 would have…

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s comments on Obamacare repeal, as reported by the Hill, aren’t terribly encouraging. “If you like the bill — and some of you may — it is hard to undo something of this magnitude. It was…

“It’s constitutional, bitches.” That was the considered legal judgement of one Patrick Gaspard, executive director of the Democratic National Committee and former Obama aide, when the Supreme Court handed down its health care decision last week. (Cleaned up for capitalization…

Twenty years ago today, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Casey v. Planned Parenthood. At the time, the 5-4 decision was a crushing disappointment to pro-lifers and conservatives. The bitter fight to get Clarence Thomas confirmed the year before…

In a column with which I mostly agree, Ross Douthat makes a variant of the David Frum argument about Republicans and health care reform. He writes of what he calls the GOP’s “just say no” approach: But it left the…

1. Before storms rocked the D.C. region, there was the Obamacare ruling. There is a growing consensus in Washington, across the political spectrum, that John Roberts switched his vote in the health care case. The joint dissent by Anthony Kennedy,…

Dave Weigel identifies what he considers “laughable Obamacare decision spin” from Republicans. He includes the argument that it makes Barack Obama more vulnerable to the charge of raising taxes: “Hi, have you met Republicans? They were going to do that…

Before the Supreme Court handed down its Obamacare decision, Matt Lewis asked if a reversal would enhance George W. Bush’s conservative legacy. He wrote of Bush’s appointment of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Court, “For this reason alone,…