Big News Day

It's a big news day today.

1. The Colorado wildfires continue to burn out of control. The Air Force Academy is now directly threatened as is most of the town of Colorado Springs if the fire comes much closer and manages to jump I-25. There have been some rather sick folk who have cheered the fire and hoped that it would continue until it burned down the Focus on the Family Campus and other Christian related structures. The Boulder fire is not much better as it climbs the ridge just to the West of that town.

2. The full House of Representatives will vote on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress today. About a dozen Democrats have stated that they intend to vote yes. No whip count has been available for the Republicans, but it is somewhat expected that nearly all of them will fall in line with the leadership. What happens after the vote is anyone's guess. Most likely there will be a drawn out negotiation and then probably some sort of court fight over these documents.

3. The Supreme Court will release its ruling on Obamacare today. Speculation has been all over the map and about the only thing that people seem to agree upon is that Chief Justice Roberts is writing one of the opinions. The general assumption has been that it is the majority opinion that he is writing so most speculation has been that either the court split 5-4 for the conservatives or 6-3 for the liberals. I've seen it postulated that Justice Ginsburg is writing the other major opinion which has fueled speculation of a 5-4 Conservative ruling. Of course, whether this is to strike down the whole thing or just the mandate is also a matter of speculation. The opinion will probably be released around 10 am so this should be the first thing we hear about.

*UPDATE*

SC ruled 5-4 that Obamacare is constitutional, although the mandate is unconstitutional under the commerce clause. It survives under Congress' power to tax. Chief Justice Robers sided with the four liberals while Justice Kennedy sided with the conservatives.

*SECOND UPDATE*

The House voted 255-67 to hold AG Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. 110 Democrats did not vote, including the entire Congressional Black Caucus (who walked out before the vote). But 17 Democrats did vote with the Republicans. The House has now indicated that they will hire an independent counsel and challenge the citation of Executive Priviledge in court.