Posted by
Bert Chapman on Monday, January 31, 2011 7:33:23 PM
Judge Roger Vinson of Florida's U.S. Court's Northern District in Pensacola, gave Obamacare a well deserved smack down today. In his ruling on a case brought by 26 states questioning the constitutionality of this statute, including its mandate that individuals legally had to purchase health insurance, Vinson struck down this provision of the law as unconstitutional and declared the entire law unconstitutional. My favorite part of this opinion is on p. 42 which reads:
"It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as a result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place. If Congress can penalize a passive individual for failing to engage in commerce, the enumeration of powers in the Constitution would have been in vain for it would be 'difficult to perceive any limitation on federal power' [Lopez, supra, 514 U.S. at 564] and we would have a Constitution in name only. Surely this is not what the Founding Fathers could have intended."
Vinson did reject the complaint of the litigants that the law's Medicaid provisions were unconstitutional, but this opinion, besides being an excellent and comprehensive exposition of the Constitution's Commerce Clause, represents another legal dagger in the bleeding walking corpse of Obamacare. The Justice Dept. is appealing this legislation which will eventually go to the Supreme Court. However, today's ruling should be tough to reverse and we can hope the Obama Administration will no longer cling to its power hungry delusions that it can impose this imprudent and unconstitutional legislation on our health care system. It is now incumbent on Congressional Republicans, and maybe even some realistic Democrats, to create health care legislation that actually cuts costs, promotes malpractice tort reform, promotes consumer choice and flexibility, and actually improves the quality of health care practice.