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ObamaCare opponents win key challenge
August 4, 2010
Twenty-one states are suing the federal government over the constitutionality of ObamaCare, specifically challenging the “individual mandate” clause requiring everyone to purchase health insurance. On Monday, the first of those states to file suit, Virginia, won a major victory when a federal judge refused to dismiss the case.
Virginia Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, filed suit against the Obama Administration just one day after the President signed his health care legislation into law; shortly thereafter, Health and Human Services moved to have the case dismissed. On August 2, U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson denied the HHS motion, ruling that the case will proceed.
“While this case raises a host of complex constitutional issues, all seem to distill to the single question of whether or not Congress has the power to regulate – and tax – a citizen's decision not to participate in interstate commerce,” Hudson wrote the decision filed on Monday.
The Commerce Clause grants Congress the power to control foreign and interstate trade and according to the CBO “typically appl[ies] to people as parties to economic transactions, rather than as members of society.”
Democrats are using this clause to claim the constitutionality of their new law; state attorneys, however, argue this is an overreach of Congress’ power. “Never before has Congress required people to buy a private product to qualify as a law-abiding citizen,” The Wall Street Journal points out.
“This lawsuit is not about health care, it’s about our freedom and about standing up and calling on the federal government to follow the ultimate law of the land – the Constitution. The government cannot draft an unwilling citizen into commerce just so it can regulate him under the Commerce Clause,” Cuccinelli said in a statement.
While Virginia has dealt a blow to the Obama Administration, Obama and his allies dismissed the ruling in a White House blog post:
“Having failed in the legislative arena, opponents of reform are now turning to the courts in an attempt to overturn the work of the democratically elected branches of government. This is nothing new.”
A fierce battle may be ahead, but the White House has lost the first fight.
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