Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Years Ago, Kavanaugh Side-Stepped Ruling On Merits Of Health Law Thus Ducking Any Political Consequences
Bloomberg: The Artful Dodge That Saved Kavanaugh From Supreme Court Doom
In 2011, Judge Brett Kavanaugh was selected at random to rule on whether President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, was constitutional. It was a career-defining moment for the aspiring Supreme Court justice, who was 46 at the time. The case promised to be a political bomb splitting two powerful forces. On one side was the Republican Party, which made Kavanaugh a judge and wanted to see the law invalidated under a limited vision of federal authority to regulate interstate commerce. On the other were millions of Americans poised to gain access to health insurance -- in some cases for the first time ever -- backed by scholars who said axing the law would be a grave error of judicial activism and taint the courts. Kavanaugh ducked the issue. (Kapur, 7/16)
Meanwhile —
The Associated Press: As Supreme Court Battle Roils DC, Suburban Voters Shrug
It stands to shift the direction of the nation's highest court for decades, but President Donald Trump's move to fill a Supreme Court vacancy has barely cracked the consciousness of some voters in the nation's top political battlegrounds. Even among this year's most prized voting bloc — educated suburban women — there's no evidence that a groundswell of opposition to a conservative transformation of the judicial branch, which could lead to the erosion or reversal of Roe v. Wade, will significantly alter the trajectory of the midterms, particularly in the House. (Beaumont and Peoples, 7/14)
