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Posted on 03/22/2010 10:17:02 AM PDT by tobyhill
Attorneys general from at least 12 states say they will challenge the constitutionality of the healthcare reform bill passed by the House of Representatives Sunday night.
The threatened action suggests the controversial measure is about to move from the legislative realm into what could become a protracted and messy fight in the courts. The attorneys general say they will sue once President Obama signs the bill into law. They are pledging to take their battle all the way to the US Supreme Court.
“The health care legislation Congress passed tonight is an assault against the Constitution,” said South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster. “A legal challenge by the states appears to be the only hope of protecting the American people from this unprecedented attack on our system of government,” he said in a statement.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum issued a similar statement late Sunday. “If the president signs this bill into law, we will file a lawsuit to protect the rights and interests of American citizens,” he said. Which states are moving to block healthcare law?
The comments came after a Sunday night conference call in which attorneys general from 11 states expressed support for legal action to block the law. In addition to Florida and South Carolina, the participating attorneys general were from Alabama, Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Washington, Utah, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
The mandates are definitely unconstitutional. Someones punished for not buying something they don’t want.
“With this law, the federal government will force citizens to buy health insurance, claiming it has the authority to do so because of its power to regulate interstate commerce,” Cuccinelli said. “We contend that if a person decides not to buy health insurance, that person – by definition – is not engaging in commerce, and therefore, is not subject to a federal mandate.”
The Virginia attorney general added: “Just being alive is not interstate commerce. If it were, there would be no limit to the US Constitution’s commerce clause and to Congress’s authority to regulate everything we do.”
You’re right that it is unconstitutional, but you need to back up a step.
There is NO power in the US Constitution whereby the Congress can force you to associate with a person, group or corporation with whom you do not wish to associate. In fact, if we look at the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, it recognizes the right of free association.
Telling you that you MUST associate yourself with an insurance company for simply being an adult is the first point of unconstitutional mandate in this bill. The people who point to auto insurance as an example of such previously existing requirements are, in a word, morons. No state requires you to buy auto insurance for owning a car. They require you to have insurance to drive on public roads. When we owned the farm, we had unlicensed and uninsured vehicles that never left the farm, and no one ever tried to force us to license or insure those vehicles.
This mandate for insurance for simply being an adult is unconstitutional from the get-go. Then the fine is unconstitutional as well, as you point out.
State AGs may be our only hope:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2475024/posts
VA’s AG Ken Cuccinelli is awesome. Someone said his Federal Circuit is among the fastest. They said it is athe “rocket docket.” So how many stops til we get to SCOTUS?
Actually, ObamaCare is more like requiring you to buy auto insurance even if you don't own a car.
Like my 95-year-old neighbor who hasn't driven in years and no longer owns a car. We'll, she needs to have some skin in the game, too!
Great analysis and thanks. I know SCOTUS ripped apart McCain Feingold. It still exists but it has been shredded. I am wonder if this part of forcing people to buy will be enough to kill it.
It is too bad that the State AGs won’t go further, and attack any federal regulation of insurance as not commerce. Removing the mandatory buy won’t help much when the legislation destroys all private insurance by outlawing the very concept of insurance: buying it before the risk has happened.
The insurance part may be over turned. The rest of the bill would stand as is unfortunately.
I don’t think we need put all our eggs in this basket, we must dismantle the democrat congress as soon as possible.
This is a very good and MAJOR point. The states are extremely protective of regulating insurance. The SEC has tried more than once to regulate insurance including annuities as securities. The states and companies have slapped them down each time.
State regulation of insurance companies are another reason why insurance companies do not blow up. The regulation is better. Maybe you should send the suggestion to FL and VA’s AGs plus the others.
You have to hit them from any and every angle.
The insurance part is key. I wonder what other parts could be shredded. The insurance companies should be all over this.
The problem is that the AGs have no principles. Forcing people to buy something is politically unpopular, hence their “brave” lawsuit. Something for nothing—wait until you’re sick to buy insurance—is popular, hence there is not a snowball’s chance of a challenge.
That’s a hoot.
That seems to be the agenda.
>>being alive is not interstate commerce.
I bet they could make the case. Our phone calls, various services we use could be used to make the case, getting on a plane, a train, a car. Filling gas is using interstate commerce, shipped in from somwhere else.
>>Congress’s authority to regulate everything we do
I bet they have the authority. If not Congress, then the plethora of state busybodies have shown their inclination to regulate every aspect of our lives.
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