Supreme Court: Waiting for the Main Course

US Supreme Court building, front elevation, steps and portico. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Everyone was waiting on Monday for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on President Obama's health care reform laws.  That's everyone from the White House to Congress to health insurance companies to the media to ordinary folks, ready to react if justices rule one way or another.

But the notoriously camera-shy justices opted to apply an old showbiz maxim before releasing their decision on Thursday:  "Make 'Em Wait".  Until then, here's a roundup of some of the rulings the Court has made so far.

• The Arizona law where immigrants who are arrested or detained have to show their papers (should they have any) to police was upheld, with the other parts of the law struck down.  Which means, with Obama signing an executive order easing laws for children of undocumented workers, the states have less power to do what the government can't or won't do to control the border as they see fit.
• A 100-year old Montana law limiting the amount of money companies can give to political campaigns was struck down, making it consistent with the Citizens United ruling of a couple of years ago.  Which means the (conservative) justices seem to know which side their bread is buttered on, not to mention who's doing the buttering.  Remember kids, corporations are people, too.

This also happens to be the 40th anniversary of the Watergate scandal, arising out of a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.  The litany of dirty tricks and corruption brought down President Richard Nixon, put several of his cronies in prison, and made campaign finance reform the law--at least for awhile.  Is that what it's going to take before Citizens United rears its ugly head?

• The Court struck down fines levied by the Federal Communications Commission against Fox and ABC for showing celebrities swearing on awards shows and naked female backsides on police dramas in a fleeting fashion (in that order), saying that the government's rules against that sort of thing are too vague.  The justices did not address the constitutionality of what the FCC considers indecent.  So nothing really changes.  The broadcast networks still can't air certain words or body parts on the allegedly  public airwaves without being heavily fined.  It's just that the FCC needs to clarify its rules a little.

Without minimizing the importance of those rulings, it's safe to say that the preliminaries are out of the way.  When the Supreme Court's decision on Obamacare is handed down Thursday, this is going to set the tone for the rest of the presidential campaign.  And the justices will be nowhere near Washington when that happens.