Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox’s legal challenge to sweeping federal health care legislation is a “serious constitutional claim” that has been too airily dismissed by law scholars, according to a Georgetown University law professor recruited by Cox to speak to reporters today.
Randy Barnett, a Carmack Waterhouse legal theory professor, said there is a realistic possibility the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately could invalidate several of the new law’s key provisions as congressional overreach.
Congress has never asserted in history the authority to require individuals to make a specific purchase or be fined, Barnett said, as the health care legislation would under a mandate that all American citizens have insurance or pay a fee to the government.
He said new regulations imposed on states as a condition of receiving Medicaid payments was also vulnerable.
Cox is among at least 14 attorneys general nationwide who are challenging the constitutionality of the new health care legislation. Cox filed his challenge March 26.
Showing posts with label Randy Barnett. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Randy Barnett. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
"... paying 'cash for clunkers' is one thing; making everyone buy a Chevy is quite another"
...the Supreme Court has long allowed Congress to regulate and prohibit all sorts of "economic" activities that are not, strictly speaking, commerce. The key is that those activities substantially affect interstate commerce, and that's how the court would probably view the regulation of health insurance.
But the individual mandate extends the commerce clause's power beyond economic activity, to economic inactivity. That is unprecedented. While Congress has used its taxing power to fund Social Security and Medicare, never before has it used its commerce power to mandate that an individual person engage in an economic transaction with a private company. Regulating the auto industry or paying "cash for clunkers" is one thing; making everyone buy a Chevy is quite another. Even during World War II, the federal government did not mandate that individual citizens purchase war bonds.
But the individual mandate extends the commerce clause's power beyond economic activity, to economic inactivity. That is unprecedented. While Congress has used its taxing power to fund Social Security and Medicare, never before has it used its commerce power to mandate that an individual person engage in an economic transaction with a private company. Regulating the auto industry or paying "cash for clunkers" is one thing; making everyone buy a Chevy is quite another. Even during World War II, the federal government did not mandate that individual citizens purchase war bonds.
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