"All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives."
In addition to the other reasons why Obamacare is unconstitutional, it is unconstitutional because it is an overbroad delegation of legislative power to the Executive. The Administration's continual ad hoc modification of the law and creation of law is daily creating a record of fact on which the law can be struck down.
From Wikipedia:
In the Federal Government of the United States, the nondelegation doctrine is the principle that the Congress of the United States, being vested with "all legislative powers" by Article One, Section 1 of the United States Constitution, cannot delegate that power to anyone else. However, the Supreme Court ruled in In J.W. Hampton, Jr., & Co. v. United States (1928)[1] that Congressional delegation of legislative authority is an implied power of Congress that is constitutional so long as Congress provides an "intelligible principle" to guide the executive branch: "'In determining what Congress may do in seeking assistance from another branch, the extent and character of that assistance must be fixed according to common sense and the inherent necessities of the government co-ordination.' So long as Congress 'shall lay down by legislative act an intelligible principle to which the person or body authorized to [exercise the delegated authority] is directed to conform, such legislative action is not a forbidden delegation of legislative power.'"
All of these ad hoc "fixes" show that Congress did not "lay down by legislative act an intelligible principle" and that there is nothing in the law to which the Administration must "conform." More from Wikipedia:
Only rarely has the Supreme Court invalidated laws as violations of the nondelegation doctrine. Exemplifying the Court's legal reasoning on this matter, it ruled in the 1998 case Clinton v. City of New York that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996, which authorized the President to selectively void portions of appropriation bills, was a violation of the Presentment Clause, which sets forth the formalities governing the passage of legislation. Although the Court noted that the attorneys prosecuting the case had extensively discussed the nondelegation doctrine, the Court declined to consider that question. However, Justice Kennedy, in a concurring opinion, wrote that he would have found the statute to violate the exclusive responsibility for laws to be made by Congress.
In the case of Obamacare, the Administration is actually doing things contrary to the plain words of the statute. Congress cannot delegate the authority, purely legislative, to re-write the statute.
Supposing someone challenges the statue on the grounds of overbroad delegation. Is the Administration going to defend by claiming that its actions were unauthorized by the statute? No, the Administration will claim that the statute authorizes the Executive to do whatever it feels like.
I do not have much confidence in the courts. However, knowing that the statute is unconstitutional is a guide and support for decisions by individuals -- both as to their private conduct and their conduct as jurors in any case where Obamacare is at issue.
They’re routing many of the decisions through Sibelius. The statute gave her almost unlimited authority.
Bump to that!