Which of the justices claimed that "inactivity is an activity"? She had a point. Doing nothing is a choice not to do something.
yitbos
“She had a point. Doing nothing is a choice not to do something”
Whatever nothing is, it is not commerce.
I dunno, haven't been following the case. I just recalled being involved in the semantic argument that relies on "inactivity" as the distinguishing word, and recognized that sophistry can easily turn inactivity into activity, on anything, and probably do the reverse too.
So, I got to looking at the enumerated power stated in the constitution, which is "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." And I figured working inside that framework would be rhetorically simpler. So, if Congress has the power to regulate, does it have the power to compel? Is that a power the constitution grants? Make THAT the question the SCOTUS is answering.
Digging around some, I see I wasn't the first to come up with that formulation (didn't think I would be).
Yes indeed, as Rush saiid, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”
“Which of the justices claimed that ‘inactivity is an activity’? She had a point. Doing nothing is a choice not to do something”
The more I think about arguments like this, the more it makes me hate lawyers. Pure sophistry, it is. Doing nothing may be choice, or may not. It’s entirely possible not to buy health insurance without having ever considered it. It is also possible to make a choice to buy insurance without ever going through with it. You get run over by a bus on your way to the local insurance provider, for instance.
Now, that choice, was it commerce? No, obviously. You have to actually buy the insurance before you’ve engaged in commerce. Chosing not to buy insurance, likewise, is not commerce. It may have been economic activity, I’ll grant. Sitting on the couch doing nothing is an alternative to getting up off your ass, and choosing it demonstrates you value nothing over whatever doing something would have gotten you. But it still isn’t commerce. You need an overt action for that.