PrintOctober 27, 2010
ObamaCare and the Constitutional Crisis
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) has, from the moment it was proposed, inflamed passions and stirred dissent. The Virginia lawsuit against the federal government over ObamaCare centers on the Commerce Clause and whether the federal government has the ability to force an individual to participate in commerce.Twenty other states have filed lawsuits against provisions of the law centered on the mandate and the federal burden placed on states to expand Medicare. Some aspects of the law have been ruled legal, at least in the first round of judgments. All are in agreement that the Supreme Court will be the final arbiter on the law and in a position to redraw lines of constitutionality for a significant number of other laws associated with the Commerce Clause.The debate is also a stage-setting for the greater issues of how to read the Constitution. There are two schools of thought on the issue of constitutionality: the Literalist school and the Case Law school. Each...(Read Full Article)
