WASHINGTON — Jay Carney had a message for the Supreme Court observers engaged in rampant speculation after oral arguments on gay marriage Tuesday: remember the health care case.
Many top legal analysts predicted Obama's health care law was all but kaput after Supreme Court oral arguments on its constitutionality. Despite the confident predictions of a loss for Obama, the Court ruled in the White House's favor last summer. Without directly mentioning that ruling Tuesday, Carney clearly hinted at large-scale prognostication fail when asked what he thought of the oral arguments about California's Proposition 8.
"I would wait. I think we've seen in recent history that there's ample reason to be cautious about predicting outcomes in Supreme Court cases based on any particular piece of the puzzle, in this case, oral arguments," he said. "So I'll keep my own caution and not engage in that."
Carney said Obama had been briefed on Tuesday's arguments case, and said top adviser Valerie Jarrett and and White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler were on hand for the oral arguments. Carney also reaffirmed Obama's belief that marriage rights should be extended to same-sex couples.