Do you remember when Nancy Pelosi got on her high horse when asked about the constitutionality of the individual mandate?
I guess Nancy is taking things a little more seriously now.
The New York Times: A federal judge in Virginia ruled on Monday that the keystone provision in the Obama health care law is unconstitutional, becoming the first judge to invalidate any part of the sprawling act and ensuring that appellate courts will receive contradictory opinions from below.
The judge, Henry E. Hudson of Federal District Court in Richmond, said the law’s requirement that most Americans obtain insurance exceeded the regulatory authority granted to Congress under the Commerce Clause.[…]
In a 42-page opinion, Judge Hudson wrote: “Neither theSupreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market.”
Allowing Congress to exert such authority, he said, “would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers.”
Ah, and there in lies the heart of the matter. If government can force you to buy health insurance, then what other products can they force you to buy. Electric cars? Fresh fruit and vegetables?
From the comments at the NY Times, it seems that many are convinced that the Feds already have this power because they make you buy auto insurance. This is erroneous, because one can easily opt out of buying auto insurance by simply choosing not to drive. There is no way to opt out of choosing to buy health insurance. It is this clear lack of choice that puts ObamaCare on unconstitutional grounds.
In an editorial over at the Wall Street Journal, the Journal notes that some liberals are saying that mandate or no mandate, ObamaCare will stay:
The Wall Street Journal: Yesterday liberals were crowing that even if the mandate is eventually declared illegal, it's no big deal because the rest of ObamaCare's new system would remain intact. Yet they've argued for years that the mandate is essential to health reform, because the mandate is at the heart of the regulatory machine. ObamaCare without a mandate would mean individuals wouldn't have to pay into a system until they were sick, driving up costs even faster and ruining what's left of health insurance markets.
And destroying the health insurance market was the real goal of ObamaCare from the get go.
Now comes the big push to get the Supreme Court to hear this case. There was a time where the outcome could have been pretty much guaranteed. Now a day with so many judges doing their own thing, it is hard to say with absolute certainty whether or not the individual mandate will stand.
Via: Memeorandum
Via: The New York Times
Video h/t: Michelle Malkin