PrintMay 25, 2010
ObamaCare Lawsuit Reveals National Grab to Regulate Individual 'Decisions'
Noted law professor Jonathan Turley said if ObamaCare stands, federalism is dead.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius filed her expected motion to dismiss the Virginia lawsuit challenging the individual mandate in ObamaCare. The motion has a memorandum of law and argument. If Sebelius' motion were to prevail, more than federalism would be dead.
Virginia claims the individual mandate exceeds Congress's authority under the Commerce Clause. The Sebelius memorandum says ObamaCare deals with the "pervasive ills in the health care system [that] require a national solution." (Emphasis added.) The individual mandate is "a linchpin of Congress's reform plan."
The Feds' memorandum says the individual mandate is well within Congress's Commerce Clause power because "the provision regulates economic decisions regarding the way in which health care services are paid for -- decisions that, in the aggregate, have a direct and substantial effect on interstate commerce." (Original emphasis, page 16 of the memorandum.)
Under that standard, what individual decision isn't subject to a "national solution?"
