Obama: Supreme Court Won’t Overturn Obamacare Law

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 2, 2012   |   3:15PM   |   Washington, DC

President Barack Obama today, during a televised press conference, said in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t believe the Supreme Court will overturn Obamacare, the abortion funding and rationing law pro-life groups oppose.

“We are confident that this will be upheld because it should be upheld,” Obama said at a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. He added that the high court would be supposedly guilty of “judicial activism” by striking down the Obamacare law a majority of Americans oppose.

“I’m confident the Supreme Court will uphold the law,” Obama said. “That’s not just my opinion, but also the opinion of legal experts across the entire political spectrum.”

“The reason is because in accordance with precedent out there, it’s constitutional,” Obama said. “That’s not just my opinion, by the way. That’s the opinion of legal experts across the ideological spectrum, including two very conservative appellate court justices who said this wasn’t even a close case.”

Obama said overturning the law would constitute “an unprecedented, extraordinary step” because a majority of members of Congress approved it.

The pro-abortion president added, “I just remind conservative commentators that for years we’ve heard that the biggest problem is judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint. That a group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. Well, this is a good example. And I’m pretty confident that this court will recognize that and not take that step.”

“This is not an abstract argument,” Obama said. “People’s lives are affected by the lack of availability of healthcare.”

He contended that “Americans all across the country are getting preventative care because of this law,” and that “doesn’t count the 30 million people who stand to gain coverage” in 2014.

WANT TO DEFEAT OBAMA?

 

While Obama thinks the nation’s highest court will keep Obamacare in place, a new poll today shows 61 percent of Americans, a new high, believe the Supreme Court will overturn the Obamacare law.

“Following a week of highly-publicized hearings before the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of President Obama’s health care law, most voters continue to favor repeal of the law, and more than ever think it’s likely to be repealed,” Rasmussen pollster Scott Rasmussen said.

The new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 54% of likely voters at least somewhat favor repeal of the health care law, including 41% who strongly favor it. Forty percent (40%) are at least somewhat opposed to repeal, with 25% who are strongly opposed.

Since the law’s passage by Congress in March 2010, most voters have favored repeal in virtually every survey, with support running as high as 62%. Opposition to repeal has ranged from 32% to 44%.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of voters believe it’s at least somewhat likely the health care law will be repealed, up from 50% in mid-February and the highest level expecting repeal since the law was passed in late March 2010.  Just 24% don’t see repeal of the law as likely, the lowest level measured yet.

During the Supreme Court hearings last week, Justice Anthony Kennedy, considered to be the swing vote in this issue, expressed deep skepticism about the constitutionality of the mandate. In fact, he called such an idea “unprecedented” and told the Solicitor General that the government needed to answer a “very heavy burden of justification” to show how the Constitution authorizes Congress to require that people buy insurance.