THE "UNCONSTITUTIONAL" GAME IS OVER

The wingers and Baggers are going to be very disappointed when they find out that even conservative justices are likely to OK the health care reforms.

States fighting healthcare law don't have precedent on their side
A 2005 Supreme Court ruling citing the authority to regulate commerce poses a problem for suits claiming it's unconstitutional for the federal government to force individuals to have insurance.

LA Times
March 27, 2010|By David G. Savage

...a far-reaching Supreme Court ruling in 2005 [Gonzales vs. Raich] that upheld federal restrictions on home-grown marijuana in California.

At issue in that case -- just like in the upcoming challenges to the healthcare overhaul -- was the reach of the federal government's power.

Conservative Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy joined a 6-3 ruling that said Congress could regulate marijuana that was neither bought nor sold on the market but rather grown at home legally for sick patients.


They said the Constitution gave Congress nearly unlimited power to regulate the marketplace as part of its authority "to regulate commerce."

Even "noneconomic local activity" can come under federal regulation if it is "a necessary part of a more general regulation of interstate commerce," Scalia wrote.

EVEN BETTER, Savage shows why an appeal to the Founder's vision is specious:

Critics of the new health insurance mandate often claim the Founding Fathers could never have envisioned the federal government telling individuals that they must take an action or buy a private product.

That, however, is not quite correct, experts said.

As one of its earliest actions, Congress passed the Militia Act of 1792, which was signed by President George Washington. It mandated that "each and every able-bodied white male citizen" must "be enrolled in the militia."

Hardly shy about imposing federal regulations on private citizens, the militia law said that each new recruit must show up within six months carrying "a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, a knapsack [and] a pouch to contain not less than 24 cartridges suited to the bore of his musket or firelock."