Washington, D.C. — Judge Roger Vinson’s decision striking down the Affordable Care Act is wrong on so many counts that it’s hard to begin counting. Nonetheless, we did.
In an interactive examination of Vinson’s opinion, Neera Tanden, Chief Operating Officer at the Center for American Progress; Ian Millhiser and Tony Carrk, Policy Analysts, show how Vinson effectively writes an entire provision of the Constitution out of the document. How he butchers history, thumbs his nose at binding Supreme Court precedent, and relies on a constitutional theory that George Washington would find shocking. Even conservative legal scholars have questioned Vinson’s reasoning.
We also explain that one section of Vinson’s opinion was lifted from a brief filed by an organization that has been labeled a hate group. And when Vinson somehow concludes that the Boston Tea Party renders the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, we take apart that argument, too.
All 78 pages of Vinson’s deeply ideological opinion have been culled through—just click on the highlighted errors and we explain Vinson’s mistakes.
Take a deep dive into this interactive graphic here.
You’ll discover Vinson’s opinion is such an outlier that it could not be taken seriously by higher courts.
###