The American Spectator recently published a great article by David Catron titled “King v. Burwell Is Much Bigger than Obamacare” in which he lays out what is really at stake here. This case is not about “killing health care,” states’ rights or even killing Obamacare, although a ruling in favor of King et al would certainly have effects in all those areas. Rather it is about the very nature of the republican form of government we have enjoyed in this country for more than 200 years. From the article:

If the Court permits this usurpation of such crucial congressional prerogatives [ed. the ability to levy taxes and authorize expenditures beyond those authorized by Congress], the result would be a quantum leap forward in presidential power. This is precisely what the separation of powers was devised to prevent. Yet, as perilous as it would be to permit the executive branch to accumulate more power than it has already acquired since 2009, that is what SCOTUS is being pressured to do. Since the Court agreed to hear King, there has been a concerted campaign by left-leaning legal scholars, politicians, and pundits to push its deliberations in that direction.

It will be interesting to see what comes in the oral arguments scheduled for tomorrow and even more so to see whether Chief Justice John Roberts caves to the pressure being exerted on him and the other justices to grant the executive branch powers that the Constitution explicitly reserves to the Congress. If he does cave, it will fundamentally transform the United States, possibly more than anything President Obama has done to this point.

As David Catron concludes in his article:

It’s no coincidence that John Adams included Livy among those who influenced his view that a republic was “a nation of laws, not of men.” Livy personally witnessed the events that converted Rome from the former to the latter. If the Court caves again, we will have witnessed the same fundamental transformation of our country.

h/t FIRM