Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
Oh happy day. The Constitution lives. From Bloomberg:
The Obama administration’s requirement that most citizens maintain minimum health coverage as part of a broad overhaul of the industry is unconstitutional because it forces people to buy insurance, a federal judge ruled, striking down the linchpin of the president’s plan.
U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson in Richmond, Virginia, said today that the requirement in President Barack Obama’s health-care legislation goes beyond Congress’s powers to regulate interstate commerce. While severing the coverage mandate, Hudson didn’t address other provisions such as expanding Medicaid that are unrelated to it. He didn't order the government to stop work on putting the remainder of the law into effect.
Of course, severed from the mandate to purchase health insurance, Obamacare collapses as more and more citizens wait to become ill before purchasing ever more unaffordable "insurance."
There's a new spring in my step this morning.
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Oct '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
"The Congress shall have power to...regulate commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes".
You have to wonder how the founders would have re-written this sentence if they realized what too-clever powermongers would use it for. You can bet anytime Congress seems to be overstepping its bounds and passing tyrannical legislation, the constitutional justification is taken from the commerce clause.
Oct '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
It seems so obvious, but it is still amazing. An excellent start.
Aug '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
George Savage: Oh happy day...
Of course, severed from the mandate to purchase health insurance, Obamacare collapses as more and more citizens wait to become ill before purchasing ever more unaffordable "insurance."
There's a new spring in my step this morning.
Before you turn too Tiggerish, allow me to be the wet blanket:
1) What is to prevent the ruling from being appealed and overturned?
2) What is to prevent the fact that more and more healthy Americans will be priced out of community-rated insurance if it's not mandatory from being used as an argument for a single-payer system?
OK. I've fulfilled my pessimism quotient for the day. Now let's keep fighting :-)
Nov '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
As Nancy Pelosi said "The constitution? Are you serious? Are you serious?" Yes, Nancy, actually we were. Hopefully our constitution in exile is coming back home to roost!
May '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
Midget Faded Rattlesnake: Before you turn too Tiggerish, allow me to be the wet blanket:
1) What is to prevent the ruling from being appealed and overturned?
2) What is to prevent the fact that more and more healthy Americans will be priced out of community-rated insurance if it's not mandatory from being used as an argument for a single-payer system?
OK. I've fulfilled my pessimism quotient for the day. Now let's keep fighting :-) · Dec 13 at 10:23am
Yeah, I'm similarly skeptical. I seriously doubt this ruling will go unscathed and uncontested via some political mechanism.
Jul '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
Of course it's going to be appealed. The moment it was signed into law it was destined to wind up in front of the Supreme Court with Kennedy being the deciding vote in a 5-4 decision. Which way Kennedy votes is anyone's guess.
Jul '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
This is far better than if the decision had gone the other way. We should just adopt the "settled law" meme from here out, of course.
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
Accepting that this will indeed be appealed, Rep. Eric Cantor has invited the White House to join him in appealing to the Supreme Court, bypassing the lower appellate chain, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Maybe Ricochet's legal eagles can weigh in on this option, but it sounds sensible to this layman. But I fear MFR's point may be right; that the law's provisions will so drive up the costs to private insurers that all we will have left is a public option anyway and presto, the government will be in control.
Oct '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
I agree that this case should be expedited to the top of the Supreme Court's list. I can't imagine them having anything more important to consider right now - those supporting and opposing Obamacare can all agree it represents a massive shift in America and it would be better for all that we establish its legality as soon as possible.
Nov '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
Regardless of how this ruling ends up, props to Henry Hudson, and I take back everything I said about him when he was my boss. Actually, it wasn't anything that bad--we just knew his short stint as director of the U.S. Marshals Service was a springboard to a federal judgeship, which indeed it was.
Nov '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
There appears to be a consensus on this thread: any administration that would bully this legislation through using such bareknuckled, thuggish tactics isn't going to let a little thing like a federal court ruling stop it.
The personal mandate isn't central to the issue anyway. The larger fight is this: the left wants socialized medicine. They won't stop until they get it. If this doesn't work, they'll try something else. And since it's a lousy, unpopular idea, they'll need to destroy the existing system in order to create the necessary vacuum.
I'm delighted at this ruling, but it's a mistake to think this changes anything.
Oct '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
Reality Check: this is our side’s first win. We’ve lost 2 other Federal District court challenges.
Nov '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
Agree with everyone that this will be a short-lived victory, but hey--I always get gleeful and smug and superior-like and my eyes begin to twinkle whenever the Left is dealt a blow from the judiciary, the branch they've so successfully infiltrated and unscrupulously used and corrupted with abandon. I'm childish that way.
May '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
Good news. But Obamacare doesn't need the individual mandate to destroy the health insurance industry and damage medical care in general.
It kills me to hear some conservatives talking as if financial unsustainability could derail the Left's plans. Suddenly, the Left is supposed to care about costs?
Jun '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
Aaron,"It kills me to hear some conservatives talking as if financial unsustainability could derail the Left's plans. Suddenly, the Left is supposed to care about costs?"
Of course they don't. BUT we sure do. And if the last election has a thread of impetus, what we care about does matter, after all.
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
Aaron Miller: Good news. But Obamacare doesn't need the individual mandate to destroy the health insurance industry and damage medical care in general.
It kills me to hear some conservatives talking as if financial unsustainability could derail the Left's plans. Suddenly, the Left is supposed to care about costs? · Dec 13 at 12:19pm
Aaron, MFR, et al., I am very optimistic about the ruling. Here's why. For single-payer to take hold in America, leftists need to present a convincing case of market failure. And so they have; each healthcare law is written to constrict the market and the next "fix" is always at the ready, further destabilizing the market until single-payer is the only remaining option.
But invisibility is a prerequisite for the success of this strategy. The loss of the individual mandate is about to present the public with a highly visible example of unadulterated government failure.
It absolutely cannot get any better than this.
Aug '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
George Savage
But invisibility is a prerequisite for the success of this strategy. The loss of the individual mandate is about to present the public with a highly visible example of unadulterated government failure.
It absolutely cannot get any better than this.
Gosh, I guess I still haven't got the wet-blanket out of my system, but I'm not at all sure that the public would interpret the failure as a government rather than a market failure:
What the public might see, if the mandate is declared unconstitutional, is that the health-care market gets freer (no mandate) at the same time it gets more expensive (because mandatory community rating -- whose ills may remain invisible to most folks since it takes reasoning about risk to see them -- is still in place).
So they might say to themselves, "Oh look. Another market failure." Certainly, we can expect no shortage of politicians wishing to spin it this way.
I expect we not only must convince folks that the mandate is immoral, but that forbidding people from pricing insurance according to risk is immoral too -- and that's a somewhat trickier argument to make.
Oct '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
The sad part is that we all waited for a court to rule on whether or not the health care takeover was unconstitutional- as if constitutionality were a matter that only the judiciary has the priviege of deciding. The even sadder part is that every sane, educated person in the USA already knows the bill is unconstitutional- including Obama, Pelosi, and Reid- but it was signed into law anyway.
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
What the public might see, if the mandate is declared unconstitutional, is that the health-care market gets freer (no mandate) at the same time it gets more expensive (because mandatory community rating -- whose ills may remain invisible to most folks since it takes reasoning about risk to see them -- is still in place).
So they might say to themselves, "Oh look. Another market failure." Certainly, we can expect no shortage of politicians wishing to spin it this way.
Dec 13 at 1:40pm
MFR, I understand your fears but think you should cheer up. With the individual mandate gone, Obamacare no longer works according to its own logic. We now have an opportunity for bipartisan repeal. Failing that, the implosion of the new system will be swift; too swift to blame the market. The people will blame Obama and the Democrats, and that is a good thing.
May '10
Re: Ruling: Obamacare Unconstitutional
Perhaps my headache's just making me grumpy, but...
George Savage
We now have an opportunity for bipartisan repeal.
Keep dreaming. In case you haven't noticed, next year's Democratic Party will be more liberal, not less. Obama sure as hell isn't going to sign onto repeal. And whatever the House can accomplish on its own can be done without Democratic votes.
As for the "implosion" of the new system, what is "swift" supposed to mean? Ten years instead of twenty? Twenty instead of fifty? Social Security's a con game, too... but look at it go!
And, frankly, Republicans look like rookies compared to Democrats when it comes to directing the media conversation and swaying public opinion. That hasn't changed in recent months. The Republicans are poor salesmen.
Besides, if our ability to repeal Obamacare is dependent upon witnessing its results, then we've already lost.
Surely, the Supreme Court can strike down a law for not having been read when it was passed!