FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Chronicle · December 15, 2010

The Foundation

"The freedom and happiness of man ... [are] the sole objects of all legitimate government." --Thomas Jefferson

Hope 'n' Change: ObamaCare Mandate Ruled UnconstitutionalOn Monday, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson, appointed by George W. Bush, ruled that one of the core provisions of ObamaCare -- the one mandating that individuals buy health insurance -- is unconstitutional. "The unchecked expansion of congressional power to the limits suggested by the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision [the individual mandate] would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers," wrote Hudson. "At its core, this dispute is not simply about regulating the business of insurance -- or crafting a scheme of universal health insurance coverage -- it's about an individual's right to choose to participate."



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Editorial Exegesis

"U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson's ... court is the first in the country to invalidate any piece of [ObamaCare], a significant setback for those who have been clamoring for decades for a government takeover of health care. And it might not be the last court to rule against the legislation, given the number of other legal challenges out there. One such lawsuit in Florida was filed by 20 state attorneys general and governors and has been joined by incoming House Speaker John Boehner. It's scheduled to be heard this week by a judge who has indicated he too has problems with the individual mandate. Perhaps most importantly, Hudson's ruling puts the legislation's supporters on the defensive, both in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion, where it's not popular. Monday's decision is a strong momentum boost for the repeal movement, which at one time seemed like little more than wishful thinking. The ruling will, of course, be appealed. A Congress and White House that were so willing to trod on American liberty with their health care reform aren't going to let a federal court ruling stop their campaign to take over as much of the private sector as possible. ... As so many others have said, ObamaCare and the legal challenges surrounding it are not about the country's health care but about America's future and our legacy of constitutional freedom. The justices will be deciding if we are a nation of laws or of legislative whim. They need to get it right." --Investor's Business Daily



Upright

"According to Obama, the federal government can make you do something if your failure to do it, combined with similar inaction by others, has a 'substantial effect' on interstate commerce. By rejecting that premise on Monday, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson took a stand for the principle that Congress may exercise only those powers that are specifically enumerated in the Constitution." --columnist Jacob Sullum



"If the federal government can get away with ordering individuals to buy health insurance based on interstate commerce laws, it could order us to submit to any other practice it deems for our good based on similar misinterpretations of the Constitution. Such a course would further erode our liberties and move us closer to dictatorship and away from principles the Constitution was written to protect." --columnist Cal Thomas



"The Supreme Court, as currently constituted, seems unlikely to overturn Judge Hudson's holding on the individual mandate and the tax penalty. Yes, the highest court has gone very far in extending the Commerce Clause over the past seven decades. But even the Supremes have never gone as far as the Obama Justice Department desperately wants it to go. For the court to go that far, it will have to fundamentally break the Constitution, tearing out its strictures on a limited government. Such a ruling would mean the literal end of any limits on the power of Congress, posing the most dangerous political threat to our liberty since our nation's founding." --Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation



"Regarding the estate tax, or what has come to be known as the death tax, it is probably, of all the ways in which our government takes revenue, the most immoral. ... The death tax punishes the very behavior that defines the economic heart and soul of American prosperity. But perhaps worse, it attacks our most important social institution -- the American family. ... If we want to get back to prosperity, then it should be axiomatic that protecting freedom, entrepreneurship and family is the answer. Not the politics of power and envy." --columnist Star Parker



"Most people have no clue what military life is like, least of all the opinion makers in New York, Los Angeles and the nation's capital. The military is not representative of the country at large. It is disproportionately rural, small-town, Southern and Hispanic. We ask our troops to do a lot for very little money. Sometimes they die for us. The least Democrats could do is not pass grandstanding bills while self-righteously denouncing our servicemen as homophobes." --columnist Ann Coulter



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Nate Jackson

Managing Editor