memeorandum: Place Your Bets on Obamacare (Dahlia Lithwick/Slate)

3:55 PM ET, March 28, 2012

Top Items:

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

Argument recap: A lift for the mandate? — Analysis — The Supreme Court spent 91 minutes Wednesday operating on the assumption that it would strike down the key feature of the new health care law, but may have convinced itself in the end not to do that because of just how hard it would be to decide what to do after that.

Discussion: Opinionator, ThinkProgress, Politico, Business Insider, Daily Kos, Pirate's Cove, The Maddow Blog, Blue Mass Group, Shakesville, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The New Republic

David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:

Justices poised to strike down entire healthcare law — Demonstrators pray outside the U.S. Supreme Court on the third day of oral arguments over the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / March 28, 2012)

Discussion: The Hill, protein wisdom, The PJ Tatler, National Review, Mail Online, Weasel Zippers, Michelle Malkin, Ricochet Conversations Feed and PoliPundit.com

Kevin Russell / SCOTUSblog:

First severability argument update — Paul Clement is finished. The Court was skeptical that the whole act should fall if the individual mandate is invalid. But there wasn't any clear indication of how far the Court would go. It seemed like there wasn't much question …

Discussion: Althouse, Ezra Klein and aca litigation blog

David Frum / david-frum:

Supremes Won't Save GOP From Itself on Obamacare — A supporter of President Barack Obama's health care reforms(R) argues with several elderly women who are against the reforms in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC after the morning session March 27, 2012, KAREN BLEIER / AFP / Getty Images

Discussion: 2012 Decoded

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Romney Justifies Denying Health Care To People With Pre-Existing Conditions: 'We Can't Play The Game Like That' — As Mitt Romney tries to distance himself from Obamacare, he ran into some trouble last night when he got stumped by comedian Jay Leno. Leno asked Romney what he would do to help people …

Discussion: Firedoglake

Jonathan Allen / Politico:

White House defends embattled solicitor general — The White House is coming to the defense of Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, whose efforts to defend the president's health care law Tuesday are under attack as a “train wreck” and “The Worst Supreme Court Argument of All Time.”

Discussion: CNN, National Review, iOwnTheWorld.com, Mother Jones and Mediaite

msnbc.com:

First Thoughts: Brace yourself for another 5-4 decision — Brace yourself for another 5-4 decision... And such a decision would have two consequences: 1) feed the perception that the Supreme Court is as partisan as the other branches, and 2) satisfy no one... Yesterday was a bad day for the mandate …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Greg's Opinion, The Caucus, Business Insider, The Moderate Voice and Campaign Stops

Washington Wire:

Live Blog: Obama Health Law at the Supreme Court, Day 3 … The Supreme Court on Wednesday had the last of its three days of arguments over the Obama health-care law, with justices set to weigh what happens to the rest of the overhaul if the court strikes down the requirement that individuals carry health insurance.

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Enterprise Blog, Ezra Klein, Associated Press, Guardian, SCOTUSblog and Wall Street Journal

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

The Morning Plum: What will happen to the uninsured? — If you want to understand what's really at stake in the battle over Obamacare — as it's playing out before the Supreme Court and in the presidential race, where the GOP contenders are all vowing to repeal it — you need to watch Mitt Romney's appearance on Jay Leno last night.

Discussion: American Prospect, ABCNEWS, msnbc.com, The Stranger …, Salon, Mother Jones, The Maddow Blog and The Raw Story

Glenn Thrush / Politico:
John Roberts Court on trial

Discussion: Erick's blog, Right Wing News, New York Times, msnbc.com and CNN

New York Times:
The Supreme Court's Momentous Test

Discussion: American Prospect, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Hit & Run, The Loyal Opposition, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Caucus, Economix, SCOTUSblog, Althouse and Ricochet Conversations Feed

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Place Your Bets on Obamacare

Discussion: The Mahablog, Capital New York, SCOTUSblog, Democracy in America, Mother Jones, Reuters, USA Today, The Huffington Post, CNN, The Volokh Conspiracy and New York Times

Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Justices Ask if Health Law Is Viable Without Mandate

Discussion: Politico, Law Blog, CNN, Ezra Klein, White House Dossier and Truthdig

Philip Klein / Campaign 2012:
SCOTUS mulls striking down all of Obamacare

Discussion: Hot Air and Outside the Beltway

Adam Serwer / Mother Jones:
Obamacare's Supreme Court Disaster

Reuters:
Supreme court struggles with healthcare law's fate

Discussion: Firedoglake, NPR and CBS News

Kevin Sack / New York Times:
Contingency Plans Are Few if Court Strikes Down Insurance Requirement

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Post, Patterico's Pontifications, Hit & Run, NewsBusters.org, National Review, Viking Pundit and Jezebel

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

Dem kicked off House floor for ‘hoodie’ in Trayvon Martin protest — Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) on Wednesday morning was asked to leave the House floor after removing his suit jacket to reveal a “hoodie,” then putting the hood of his sweatshirt on his head to protest the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida.

Discussion: Politico, Campaign 2012, Outside the Beltway and Naked Politics

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Congressman Gets Kicked Off House Floor For Wearing Hoodie For Trayvon — Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) donned a hoodie and took to the House floor this morning to speak out against the murder of Travyon Martin, but was shouted down and removed from the floor by the Republican speaker pro tem …

Discussion: Mediaite, The New Civil Rights Movement, The Hinterland Gazette, Taylor Marsh and Politico

Fox News:

Elderly couple forced out of home after tweet claims killer of Trayvon Martin lives there — SANFORD, FLA - An elderly Florida couple have been forced to move into a hotel after their home address was wrongly tweeted as belonging to the man who shot teen Trayvon Martin.

Discussion: Wake up America, Moonbattery, Sister Toldjah, The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler and JustOneMinute

Corey Boles / Washington Wire:
Rep. Bobby Rush Is Scolded for Wearing a ‘Hoodie’ on House Floor

Discussion: Hot Air

Fox News:
Media Matters writer ‘sorry’ after blasting Drudge for Martin photo

Discussion: Belmont Club, americanthinker.com and Mediaite

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:
Rep. Waters: ‘Stiff evidence’ death of Trayvon Martin a hate crime

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Rush Limbaugh

WHP-TV:
Man leaves rally for peace and assaults his girlfriend on campus

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers and The Right Scoop

Tom Fontaine / PittsburghLIVE.com:

Santorum slips in Pennsylvania, survey finds — Rick Santorum appeared to be the Republican presidential candidate to beat in Pennsylvania a month ago. — With the state primary four weeks away, Santorum now finds himself nearly tied with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney among …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, GOP 12 and Shakesville

Stephanie Cutter / CNN:
Top Obama aide calls GOP charges ‘despicable’

Discussion: The Hill

Mike Allen / Politico:
Exclusive: Newt Gingrich cuts staff, aims at Tampa

Greg Holyk / ABCNEWS:

Record Number See Romney Negatively; Obama Outpaces Him in Popularity — Mitt Romney trails Barack Obama by 19 points in basic popularity as the 2012 presidential contest inches closer to the main event, with a record 50 percent of Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll now rating Romney unfavorably overall.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Little Green Footballs, American Prospect, Ballot Box, The Caucus, The Maddow Blog, GOP 12, The Daily Dish and Prairie Weather

Patricia Zengerle / Reuters:
Americans angry with Obama over gas prices

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Hot Air, ThinkProgress, Wonkette, Pirate's Cove and HotAirPundit

Aaronmcquade / GLAAD:

Anti-Gay activists looking for glamorous, unintelligent celebrities to advance their cause — Commentator Accountability Project — It sounds like a headline from the Onion, but strategy documents uncovered yesterday, from the nation's most prominent anti-gay marriage group …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Truth Wins Out, Gay Politics, Towleroad News #gay, Good As You and The New Civil Rights Movement

CNN:
Memos reveal strategy against gay marriage

Discussion: southernstudies.org

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:

Stealing Christianity — TNR's Tim Noah wrote yesterday about one of my all-time biggest pet peeves: the constant appropriation of the word “Christian” by conservative evangelicals as exclusive to their distinctive and hardly uncontested point of view. What sent Noah off was an NPR story on …

Discussion: Mother Jones

Timothy Noah / The New Republic:
Language Cop: “Christian”

Discussion: Mother Jones

Mj Lee / Politico:

John McCain: John Boehner's got it wrong on presidential travel — Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that he disagrees with House Speaker John Boehner's suggestion that it's inappropriate to criticize President Barack Obama when he's traveling overseas. — “I understand John Boehner's point …

Discussion: Hot Air and Mediaite

hrw.org:

“I Had To Run Away” — The Imprisonment of Women and Girls for “Moral Crimes” in Afghanistan — This 120-page report is based on 58 interviews conducted in three prisons and three juvenile detention facilities with women and girls accused of “moral crimes.”

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Huffington Post, Guardian and Reuters