Opinion: Defeat of healthcare law would erode voters’ trust in Supreme Court

Every political strategist working the fall elections sees a
game changer coming by the end of the month.

That’s when the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality
of President Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment, the Affordable Care
Act.

The Democrats have a nuclear option in this political game
if the high court throws out the healthcare law as unconstitutional.

{mosads}That blowup-the-system button, not pushed since FDR’s
attempt to stack the court with Democrats during the New Deal, is for Obama to
use the bully pulpit of the White House, and the national stage of a
presidential campaign, to launch a bitter attack on the current court as a
corrupt tool of the Republican right wing.

It is a move that could energize Democrats and independents
even as Republicans celebrate a major legal victory.

Some Democrats, sensing a political windfall, can’t wait to
start the offensive.

Nebraska’s Sen. Ben Nelson, a retiring Democrat, sent out a
news release last week condemning the “activist Supreme Court,” for potentially
dismantling a healthcare law. The senator said without the new law, health
insurance premiums will be “skyrocketing,” and endanger “healthcare for more
than 100,000 Nebraska kids with pre-existing medical conditions such as asthma
or diabetes.”

That protest comes from a conservative Democrat who held
back his vote for the bill until the White House awarded his state a special
Medicaid deal. The deal was rescinded but not before the GOP memorably labeled
it an attempted bribe, “The Cornhusker Kickback.”

Now even Nelson is climbing the political ramparts to defend
Democrats.

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Meanwhile in the House, the congressional progressive caucus
is already attacking the National Federation of Independent Business for its
suit against healthcare reform because they got a $3.7 million grant from Crossroads
GPS, a conservative political group advised by Karl Rove, the former adviser to
President George W. Bush.

But the heart of any attack on the Supreme Court for
derailing healthcare reform will come from Obama.

After oral arguments at the Supreme Court, he signaled his
willingness to target the court’s conservative majority during the presidential
campaign. Obama told reporters that if the court overturns “a duly constituted
and passed law,” the justices will be guilty of “judicial activism.” With words
that sounded like a threat he added: “I’m pretty confident that this court will
recognize that and not take that step.”

The hardball political fact is that attacking the court will
help the president’s campaign and it will damage the court for years to come.

A CBS News/New York Times poll released last week shows most
Americans already believe the ruling on healthcare reform will be based on
justices’ personal and political views. According to the survey, 55 percent of
Americans believe the justices’ political ties will play a role in the
healthcare decision.

An earlier CBS/New York Times poll from this month found an
overwhelming majority of Americans, 76 percent, said the personal and political
views of the Supreme Court justices influence their decisions in all cases —
not just healthcare. The same poll found that 60 percent of Americans now
believe that lifetime appointments for Supreme Court justices are a “bad
thing.”

The bottom line is that public confidence in the Supreme
Court, after controversial and political decisions in Bush v. Gore and Citizens
United, is the most fragile it has been in a generation. And remember, the same
polls have shown most Americans are not convinced the healthcare reform law is
a good idea.

Conservative columnists, most notably George Will, have
accused liberals of trying to put “the squeeze” on Chief Justice John Roberts.

Will points to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick
Leahy’s (D-Vt.) warning that the court needs to avoid “another 5-4 ruling.”

Leahy suggested that Chief Justice Roberts emulate “the
leadership that Chief Justice [Earl] Warren provided in the unanimous decision
in Brown v. Board of Education.”

I made the same point in this column in April, and I am not
trying to bully anyone.

The relevant point is that the court may do irreparable harm
to its reputation with another highly political split between justices
appointed by Democrats and justices appointed by Republicans. A 5-4 defeat of
the healthcare law will erode trust in the justice system.

It will be another example of how polarization has poisoned
our politics during the past decade.

Team Obama is right to conclude there is fertile political
ground to be plowed in lashing out against the right-wing activism of the
Roberts Court.

And as a bonus for Democrats if the court rules against
“ObamaCare,” the public will be looking to Republicans to see what ideas they
have to rein in escalating insurance costs, to get coverage for the uninsured
and to help people with pre-existing conditions.

Mitt Romney might suggest the plan he passed as governor of
Massachusetts. Just joking!

Juan Williams is an author and political analyst for Fox
News Channel.