The day before the Supreme Court's decision on ObamaCare, CNN is already giving credibility to the Democrats' spin if they lose the case – conservative judicial activism.
"[W]hen you combine the two biggest decisions of the Roberts court, Citizens United and health care – if they lose health care – that is a pretty clear Democratic, capital 'D,' indictment of the Supreme Court," insisted CNN's senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on Wednesday's The Situation Room. [Video coming soon. Audio here.]
He went on to make the odd claim that President Obama "has not really attacked the Supreme Court very much." The argument is strange given that the Court has not even made a decision yet on ObamaCare for the President to criticize.
And Obama has, in fact, warned that it would be "judicial activism" for the Court to overrule the law. "He made a somewhat critical comment after the oral argument, but then he backed away from it a little bit," Toobin lamely offered. Apparently accusing the Court of "judicial activism" if they rule a certain way is only a "somewhat critical" assessment of a decision.
"So it's unclear to me how much they want to take on the Supreme Court," Toobin added.
A transcript of the segment, which aired on June 27 on The Situation Room at 4:26 p.m. EDT, is as follows:
CANDY CROWLEY: Jeffrey, after the Supreme Court ruling on Arizona's immigration law, we saw the White House praise the Court.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN senior legal analyst: Absolutely.
CROWLEY: Are they now in somewhat of a box if the Supreme Court comes out and undoes part of ObamaCare, because can they then come back and say this Court is right-leaning, it's political? Haven't they put themselves in a political box here?
TOOBIN: Not necessarily. I don't think so. Because when you combine the two biggest decisions of the Roberts court, Citizens United and health care – if they lose health care – that is a pretty clear Democratic, capital "D," indictment of the Supreme Court. Now this is a challenge for the White House, how they handle this, because President Obama has not really attacked the Supreme Court very much. That hasn't been something he's done. He made a somewhat critical comment after the oral argument, but then he backed away from it a little bit. So it's unclear to me how much they want to take on the Supreme Court.
CROWLEY: Well he took them on in the State of the Union pretty good over the Citizens –
TOOBIN: That was Citizens United. But that's –
CROWLEY: He's not shy about doing it if he wants to.
TOOBIN: He's not shy, but whether he wants to make it a big campaign issue or not, I – it doesn't seem that way, at least not at this stage. But obviously, we have to see what happens tomorrow.
