I have read Judge Henry E. Hudson’s 42-page ruling invalidating the individual purchase mandate of Obamacare. In a nutshell, Judge Hudson ruled:
- That the individual purchase mandate (“Minimum Essential Coverage Provision”) is an unprecedented stretch of government power, in his words, it “extends the Commerce Clause powers beyond its current high water mark.”
- Further, that the justification must come from Congress’s enumerated Commerce Clause power to regulate economic activities.
- But the law exceeds the enumerated powers of the Commerce Clause.
- The Congress’s efforts to bootstrap authority with findings and conclusions do not, in effect, amend the constitution (my words) to increase governmental power in this sphere.
- The fines for not purchasing insurance are a penalty and not a tax, and the general power of the government to tax is not applicable to the IPM.
- The individual purchase mandate is therefore, unconstitutional.
- The unconstitutional part of the law will be severed from the rest, so that Obamacare remains in effect.
- No injunction was issued because the unconstitutional part of the law does not take effect until 2014.
More analysis with quotes from the ruling over at Secondhand Smoke.
December 14th, 2010 | 7:04 am
Interesting that he would excise the unconstitutional part of the law, leaving the rest intact and enforceable. Especially since the law itself, as I believe Wesley Smith has pointed out elsewhere, makes no such provision. So this ruling ends up being a small (though not insignificant) step in the larger task of dismantling the whole toxic thing.
Judges and Justices in our activist courts regularly rule on laws based on a “constitution” of the perceived good. If a law’s a bad idea in their eyes, they begin to see “emanations and penumbras” from the Constitution to justify their taking the law into their own hands. Thus, the whole US body of law opposing abortion-on-demand was summarily struck down in 1973.
Once, just once, I would like to see this kind of thing happen in favor of the good guys. Or in the case of Obamacare, in favor of the majority of citizens. The whole law should be struck down.
We still have a big, big job ahead of us to stave off the creeping blob of socialized medicine.