How obamacare is unconstitutional!( libertarian )

Perseus

Member
I'm sure you all know about the federal judge who ruled that ObamaCare is unconstitutional. The question becomes, is this the correct ruling?

As you probably know, Obama claims that his plan is apart of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.


"To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes"
So... the federal government can regulate commerce if with other countries, Indian Tribes, and between the states. The first fallacy arrives in this very statement. The Commerce Clause can only regulate interstate commerce while ObamaCare is intrastate commerce.

Now, we must look at the definition of "commerce":


Quote
an interchange of goods or commodities, esp. on a large scale between different countries (foreign commerce) or between different parts of the same country (domestic commerce)
http://dictionary.re...browse/commerce

This seems to fit what our Founding Fathers wrote in the Constitution. With foreign nations, among the states, and with Indian Tribes... makes sense.

It does not, however, make sense that ObamaCare would be part of this clause. ObamaCare forces individuals to purchase health insurance. The very definition of "commerce" is large trading, not individual trading. If our Founding Fathers wanted the federal government to regulate trade among individuals, they would have simply said "to regulate trade." However, if we are to say that "commerce" was used as a synonym for "trade," it is still evident that the bill is unconstitutional, since it can only be used to regulate trade -- not to force trade. The Supreme Court has ruled many times in the matter that the commerce clause can be used to regulate different types of "activity" while not purchasing health insurance is, by definition, inactivity. They've never ruled that this clause permits the federal government to regulate inactivity.

Knowing this, it is clear that ObamaCare is unconstitutional.
 

Rhonda Tharp

Active Member
I'm playing devil's advocate for the most part, and last I heard, no one was going to be forced to take the healthcare, it was going to be an option...

The wonderful thing about our Constitution is its generalities... it's open to interpretations in many areas...where you see large trading, I see trade in a large scale - 310 million people, where you see regulate, I see regulate a trade that was created for individuals who could argue that under the 9th amendment that healthcare could be a "right"... or as Jefferson put it in the Declaration of Independence "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness." Truth is we won't ever know what the Founding Fathers would have said about healthcare. Would John Locke have argued for it or David Hume, both of which highly influenced our Founding Fathers' attitudes and theories? Their 7 page Constitution (versus other countries' 300 page Constitutions) was written so that it would be a living document for future generations.
 

Chablis

New Member
I think this is going to have to go all the way to the Supreme court to get it resolved. I can see both sides of the issue unfortunately.
 

Goddess2u

Member
There are so many things that have been made a law that is unconstitutional that it is hard to post all of them. I am going to watch and see what happens here but most everyone knows one of the main things that we all have to do that is unconstitutional is pay taxes. So we will see if this is like that.
 
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