Conscience concerns could prove decisive in health care ruling

Inadequate conscience protections may lead the Supreme Court to reject the 2010 health care law, a Jesuit priest and legal scholar predicted after three days of arguments in the historic case.

“I think there are sufficient problems with the bill, as passed, that the justices could say: ‘This is unconstitutional,’” Father Robert J. Araujo, S.J., told CNA on March 29.

“There are certainly those problems that have been in the news, and I think there are some other ones. For example – the question of conscience, and conscience protection.”

“This is a very complicated law, and the more we examine it, we see more problems and concerns,” noted Fr. Araujo, who holds the John Courtney Murray Professorship at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

“I tend to think that’s on the minds of the lawyers and the justices: ‘Are we going to see more litigation, if we don’t resolve these conscience-protection and other issues?’”

“That’s why I see an opportunity for the court to say: ‘Look, there are some serious problems with this legislation. Congress has done a lot of work, (but) it’s their responsibility to write a law that will pass constitutional muster and judicial review.”

The court’s March 26-28 period of questioning focused on the law’s “individual mandate,” which requires virtually all citizens to obtain health insurance.

Most observers believe the law’s fate will hinge upon whether the requirement is judged to be a means of regulating interstate commerce – as the Obama administration maintains – or an unconstitutional overtaking of states’ power by the federal government.

Fr. Araujo thinks the law is unlikely to be upheld either fully or in part. [More]

SOURCE

CNA/EWTN News