I Wonder How Obama Will Work Around This One…..
Written by Daisy // February 29, 2012 // The Makeover And/Or Miscellaneous // 20 Comments
According to those on the left, Obamacare is a manifestation of being a compaaaaaaaaaasionate person (those meanie Republicans and their ridiculous common sense). According to those on the right, Obamacare is clearly unconstitutional.
And according to the Institute of Justice, those on the right are indeed, well, right.
You see, it turns out that the healthcare mandate has implications that require individuals to sign contracts for coverage. And when contracts come into play, you can’t sign one under “duress” in a constitutional republic like the United States (this is still the United States, right?). The folks who are pointing this little detail out at the Institute for Justice have filed an “amicus brief” to the Supreme Court with the specific question – “What happens when government applies the threat of force, through fines and presumably an eventual jail sentence for non-compliance?”
Hmmm. Good question.
Constitutional law professor Elizabeth Price Foley (who has really great hair, by the way) is seen in the video below. She’s the executive director of the Institute’s Florida Chapter, and she was one of the writers of the brief. She said, “The individual mandate violates a cardinal rule of contract law—to be enforceable, all agreements must be voluntary. The Framers understood this, and would never have given the federal government the power to force individuals into lifelong contracts of insurance. The Court should not allow the government to exercise this unprecedented and dangerous power.”
Here’s the video of Elizabeth Price Foley explaining the common sense of this amicus brief in a very clear manner:
After watching this video, I’m left to wonder how Obama and his buddies are going to spin this
“unconstitutional power grab by the federal government.” Because that’s clearly what this is. And God knows that there will be spin beyond spin…
20 Comments on "I Wonder How Obama Will Work Around This One….."
Sooooo well put! People have GOT to open their eyes to this.
whoa. it better not be upheld.
Since the 1st Ammendment is being torn up with Obamacare and the 2nd is always under attack….why not go ahead and destroy another basic structure of our country. End result: The citizens will then be forced, out of necessity to save the country from the resulting chaos, to make Obama King….or maybe Czar (it’s got a more urban ring to it)
They could even force you or your children to get multiple vaccinations. What? They already do that?
Here is the problem. Ms Foley (and yes…GREAT hair) can articulate this as succinctly and as definitively as she did from here to doomsday (which may just be right around the corner), and it won’t make a LICK of difference. When you have sitting justices on the court who DON’T CARE about constitutionality, only perpetuating the nanny state and the need for full government control, you will find that things like “constitutionality” and “facts” fly out the window. Kagan, Sotomayer and Ginsburg WILL vote to uphold Obamacare. Breyer might be a wild card but I suspect he’ll hang tight to the chicks skirts. Can this still be overturned? Yes. But it needs to be overturned on Obamacare being unconstitutional NOT on politics and it will be all politics.
Welcome to the United States of China ya’ll
What Carolyn said.
From the article: “If the U.S. Supreme Court fails to strike down the individual mandate, there will be nothing to stop Congress from forcing people into other contracts against their will—employment contracts or union membership, for example. If we still have a constitutional republic in which the federal government’s powers are limited, then the Court should strike down this law.”
If the government gains the power to force us into healthcare contracts, then I don’t see it as much of a stretch to force us into Union contracts or making us work in “state approved” jobs.
Hey! I can see Russia from my house! (end snark)
I think this is all part of a broader plan to bollux things up so irreparably that the fedgov can come galloping in with a shiny new single-payer plan hollering “I’ll save you, Nell!” Because sometimes before you can fix something you need to break it.
The reason we left Britain was that they were FORCING America into buying things we didn’t want and doing things we didn’t want and paying for things we didn’t agree with. The term “liberty” in our founding documents can be traced directly back to “freedom from a coercive government” in my opinion.
Sadly, far too many sheeple want universal healthcare (mainly because many still stupidly believe it will be free), and will lobby for it. The “consent of the governed” may trump this contractual argument, I fear.
The Supreme Court is currently the most right-leaning it has been in our lifetimes. It’s been that way since Alito replaced O’Connor. The addition of Sotomayor hasn’t changed that since she replace John Paul Stevens, also a liberal leaner. If SCOTUS ruled in favor of Citizens United, knocking down the individual mandate should be a no-brainer.
Two interesting facts:
- In its first five years, the Roberts court issued conservative decisions 58 percent of the time. And in the term ending in 2009, the rate rose to 65 percent, the highest number in any year since at least 1953. (And that was before Citizens United).
- Four of the six most conservative justices of the 44 who have sat on the court since 1937 are serving now: Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Antonin Scalia and, most conservative of all, Clarence Thomas. (The other two were Chief Justices Burger and Rehnquist.) Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the swing justice on the current court, is in the top 10.
It is for the children, and they’re more important than a pesky constitution thing, right?
Liberals have a really warped sense of what constitutes compassion.
Obama is already giving the liberal leaning judges their loophole at which to look at this through. They are claiming this is a tax…despite Obama repeatedly stating it wasn’t.
Don’t forget the far reaching precedent that the Warren Court established and how it will influence. SCOTUS is loathe to over turn precedent and that’s precisely the problem.
Isn’t a tax for when you do something, not if you DON’T do something?
Lori in Ca,
I agree with you wholeheartedly.
and on an unrealted note, I am glad you’re back.
<3 ATF
Ali – thanks! I’ve been lurking, so I never actually left. Just got otherwise occupied.
And here is Mitt Romney in 2008 telling us how we need to fight to get every American health insurance. After prancing around the country telling everyone that it was a state plan not a national one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KuJdHmMtuVs Just as bad as Obama.
This a statement he made in 2007:
“I just want to underscore something — we can get everybody in this country insured,” Romney said. “My plan is designed to get everybody in this country insured. My estimate is that from the time you would put in place this program—pass the legislation necessary to put in place this program — within four years every American would be insured.”
I guess we get Obama or Obama lite. This GOP field is scary when Newt is the best <–(using that term VERY loosely) one for the job. And bringing up the rear in all the polls.
All of it makes me wonder, how did America survive without government making all of our decisions for us? Well, of course it is because people inherently are not stupid, we are survivors of thousands of years of human evolution. America does NOT! need the Obama administration telling us how to survive. We will do quite well without them.
I really don’t see how the republic survives if this thing doesn’t get struck down. We’re already upside down on the percentage of Americans paying income taxes vs not paying them. If this thing is allowed to persist, I may have to find some more free place to retire. I don’t want to, but …
Oh, and she does have great hair. Although, there’s something about smart women. I swear, I started finding her more and more attractive the longer she talked.
Silly liberal politicians made the mandate un severable (spelling eww) from the bill.
hahahaha
The Supreme Court has to rule it unconstitutional, therefore the whole bill is out.
If they don’t.. we are no longer a free nation.
Next up .. Dictatorship.