Sign of things to come? From Yahoo News and the Christian Science Monitor:

The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Congress overstepped its authority in passing a federal law that authorized state employees to sue their state employer for sick leave.

In a decision that sharply divided the court, a four-justice plurality said Tuesday that federal lawmakers had failed to identify enough evidence of discrimination to justify a key part of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

The case is Coleman v. Court of Appeals of Maryland (10-1016).

In all, five justices agreed with the outcome, siding with the State of Maryland and against an employee who sought to sue the state for damages over Maryland’s refusal to grant unpaid sick time under the federal law.

The decision comes a week before the high court is set to hear oral arguments over whether Congress overstepped its authority when it passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Not to be picky but does this sound a little biased to anyone?

While the health-care law and family leave act are authorized under different sections of the Constitution, many legal analysts are questioning whether the court’s conservative wing has the stomach to invalidate an act of Congress widely viewed as President Obama’s most significant domestic policy achievement.

I would point out that we don’t have a king who should expect his laws to be enforced just because they are his laws, that the bill was “passed” in the House by a party line vote and in the Senate by partisan legislative gymnastics, only gaining a majority in the Senate due to the malicious and unlawful acts of the DOJ in prosecuting Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.  Keep in mind that current polls show a great deal of popular support for repeal of the law, so while it may be “widely viewed as President Obama’s most significant domestic policy achievement”, that doesn’t mean that it is favorably “viewed as President Obama’s most significant domestic policy achievement”:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that 56% at least somewhat favor repeal of the health care law, including 46% who Strongly Favor it. Thirty-nine percent (39%) oppose repeal, with 29% who are Strongly Opposed.

So by a margin of almost 2 to 1, the public opposes it.

Perhaps the President should be worried.

The FMLA decision was authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is considered by many analysts as the conservative justice most likely to join the court’s liberal wing in upholding the Affordable Care Act.

On Tuesday, Justice Kennedy sided with the conservatives.

It was a development that did not go unnoted.

I really wouldn’t say that Kennedy is a “conservative”. Kennedy is a “moderate” and one of the justices, along with Ruth Bader Ginsberg,  who have looked to foreign law as a basis for his positions. “Conservative”, as it is used here, is a far cry from a constitutional “traditionalist” who looks to original intent.

Even more reason for Obama to sweat that SCOTUS will wipe out the entire first 2 years of his only term…Nancy Pelosi should be the most angry, Obama used her like a rented mule and caused her to lose her position as Speaker…