Supreme Court Begins Review of Obama Care      Should Kagan Recuse Herself?

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court will begin reviewing the new national health care law, commonly known as Obama Care. A decision is expected in the spring. As you know, Lake County Right to Life strongly and totally opposes the ironically named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act--here are some reasons why: It certainly doesn't protect unborn babies, because the law expands government involvement in abortion. It certainly will not protect the elderly or physically vulnerable, because the law includes health care rationing. When the bill was being considered in Congress, a key amendment preventing government funding of abortion or abortion coverage in insurance plans was dead on arrival in the pro-abortion Senate. Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee notes that "the time for petition campaigns is past," because you can't lobby the Supreme Court. He adds that those who disagree with ObamaCare must work to shift control of the White House and Senate in the 2012 election so the bill can be repealed. Certainly a position Lake County Right to Life strongly supports. As the Supreme Court begins reviewing this law, one important issue concerns Obama appointed Justice Elena Kagan. The Supreme Court is closely divided, often ruling 5-4. Before being nominated to the Court, Justice Kagan was Obama's solicitor general, which means she was the person appointed to represent the federal government before the Supreme Court. "As such, throughout the Obama Care debate, she headed the office that was responsible for formulating the administration's legal defense of ObamaCare," notes Jeffrey H. Anderson, senior fellow in health care studies at the Pacific Research Institute and former director of the Benjamin Rush Society. The law states than federal judges are required to recuse themselves if they have been involved with a case before it reaches the bench or if it is questionable that they would be impartial. When asked during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings about whether she'd ever been asked her opinion or offered views on legal issues related to ObamaCare, she answered no. However, emails between Kagan and Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, released by the Department of Justice last week, belie this. Some, in fact, make her sound like a cheerleader for Obama Care. Kagan has given no indication that she will recuse herself.  Carrie Severino, chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network and expert on judicial nominations, says that "Kagan took early and aggressive action to involve her office in Obama Care and was part of the deliberative process in the Obama Care defense strategy." Severino accuses Kagan of "playing coach and umpire in the same game." In a bizarre contrast, some supporters of Obama Care have been calling for Clarence Thomas to recuse himself because his wife works for the Heritage Foundation. Lake County Right to Life urges its members to pray for individual Justices of the Supreme Court and also to pray that justice will be prevail.