Today in Michigan, U.S. District Court Judge George Steeh ( a Clinton appointee, of course) ruled that mandating that people purchase insurance or pay a tax penalty is fully Constitutional and falls squarely within Congress’s jurisdiction under the Constitution to regulate interstate commerce.
“The decision whether to purchase insurance or to attempt to pay for health care out of pocket is plainly economic,” Steeh wrote in a 20-page opinion. “These decisions, viewed in the aggregate, have clear and direct impacts on health care providers, taxpayers and the insured population, who ultimately pay for the care provided to those who go without insurance.”
The decision stemmed from one of a series of lawsuits brought by various states and individuals against Obamacare as unconstitutional. This one came from a Christian legal group, the Thomas More Law Center, objecting to a provision in the law that imposes a penalty on those who fail to buy or otherwise obtain health insurance. The judge rejected their arguments that Congress has no authority to mandate the purchase of any product, including insurance.
The Department of Justice maintained that aside from the Commerce Clause,ObamaCare is legal because it relies on Congress’ power to tax — so much for President Barack Obama’s promise not to tax people earning less than $250,000 per year!
One of the lawyers for the Thomas More Center, Rob Muise, said Steeh’s decision will be appealed.
Muise was quoted as saying that Steeh’s decision is wrong because, among other things, it would open almost any decision of private individuals to government control.
“The trouble, if you think about it, is if Congress has authority to regulate nonactivity then it has the ability to regulate anything,” Muise said. Congress can “tell you to exercise three times a week, to take certain vitamins, to refrain from eating certain foods because, at some point, costs are going to be incurred to the health care market. I find that very troubling when we have a federal government that’s supposed to be of limited, enumerated powers,” he said.
That's the thing...there's absolutely no limiting to federal powers according to this decision, certainly not what the Founders intended. It's an open ended mandate for government control of just about everything.
Two other pending lawsuits on Obamacare may not end up going quite so well for the feds. In August, a federal judge in Virginia refused to dismiss a lawsuit the state brought against Obamacare, saying the legal arguments were valid.
Another suit, brought by 20 states and a small-business group, is pending in Florida, and after arguments last month, a number of observers said the judge seemed receptive to arguments that Obamacare is unconstitutional.
This will almost certainly end up before the Supreme Court.
November 2010 & Nov 2012 can't arrive quickly enough.
ReplyDeletei have always been afraid of the application of that non-activity argument/phrase.
ReplyDeletethe liberals will look at insurance/healthcare in much the same way they do education.
at one time, i participated in public education. as i do not have children, i haven't participated since. however, my property taxes go to fund public education.
a compact between the generations.
i'm afraid this is going to be framed into something that will allow continued gov't intervention.
as the gov't is going to now run healthcare in the same manner they run public education.
i also think hussein's comment about taxes was a little more nuanced than ff gives him credit for. i believe hussein said something to the effect of he would not raise taxes on anyone making less than $250K.
this is a NEW tax, so this doesn't apply.