Hey Lefties Ignorance of the Law Doesnt Hold Up In Court

The Trouble With Mandates
Wed Dec. 15, 2010 7:39 PM PST The mandate highlights the coercive and obnoxious character of ObamaCare as a whole. The whole scheme works, to the extent it works, only if people are forced to buy a product they would not buy on a Free Market. Instead, we should have a defined-contribution Pension program requiring individuals to contribute a reasonable proportion of their income (though some flexibility should be allowed) to an array of investment vehicles to which they hold property rights. Gr...

The Amputated Mandate
For supporters of ObamaCare, Judge Henry Hudson’s decision yesterday that the Individual Mandate is Unconstitutional was a firebell in the night, to borrow Jefferson’s phrase. They had dismissed arguments that the mandate is Unconstitutional as ravings from the right-wing fringe, but here is a well-reasoned, 40-page decision from a federal district-court judge saying the mandate does indeed exceed the Federal Government’s powers. It’s yet another sign that the legitimacy ...

Liberals Mull ObamaCare Without The Mandate
It's long been accepted as a given in Health Care policy circles that if the government is going to force insurers to offer coverage to those with Pre-existing Conditions, they're also going to have to require that everybody purchase Insurance. Without a mandate, you end up with the infamous "death spiral" -- healthy people forgo purchasing coverage because they know they can wait until they get sick, leaving insurers with sicker beneficiaries, which drives up premiums and causes more healthy ...

Letters to the Editor: Dec. 16, 2010
Judgeshould have struck down entire law Re: "The ObamaCare 'Christmas Tree' gets trimmed," editorial, Dec. 14 T his editorial about a Federal Judge striking down Obamacare's individual Insurance-purchase mandate rightly noted that the law lacks a severability clause. Because of that, the judge should have struck down the entire Health Care law rather than just severing the Unconstitutional part of it. To justify preserving the rest of the law, the judge cited a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that i...

Court splits 4-4 in 'gray market' case
Published: Dec. 13, 2010 at 2:26 PM The Supreme Court Justices of the United States sit for a formal group photo in the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court in Washington on October 8, 2010. The Justices are (front row from left) Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, John G. Roberts (Chief Justice), Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg; (back row from left) Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Sameul Alito and Elena Kagan, the newest member of the Court. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg Court hears Ariz. emp...

What is so important about keeping Americans focused on the Unimportant?
This question is extremely important. There are many things that are truly important to our lives as Americans, but they are not the first things that come to mind for many when considering the answer. Our souls come to mind most fervently with this writer, but how many of us are unprepared? No, that is not a question that there is an absolute answer to really, but it is still the most important question of our lives, as each of us only has but one. Our ability to be free and live thereby prospe...

Barney Frank lays into successor
Rep. Barney Frank is already brawling with the man who will succeed him as chairman of the powerful U.S. House Financial Services Committee. Frank, the Newton Democrat who next month will lose his committee chairmanship due to Republican gains in the November Elections, went on the offensive against Rep. Spencer Bachus, an Alabama Republican who’s already made clear his displeasure with the recently passed financial-industry overhaul bill, known as Dodd-Frank. Frank, who played a major ro...

Crash the White House/Medicare czar closed-door meeting
Let’s briefly review the Obama Administration’s unprecedented transparency record: *Loophole-ridden, special interest-pandering DISCLOSE Act *Backdoor Kickbacks *Secret Big Labor deals *C-SPAN camera evasion *Disclosure-ducking coffeehouse meetings *Sunlight-shirking holiday and midnight floor votes *Behind-the-scenes Recess Appointments That’s for starters. And now, the White House is set to hold a new round of backdoor meetings with recess appointee Donald Berwick, the Medi...

Political Scene
HOUSE Rogers to take helm of intelligence panel Rep. Mike Rogers, Michigan Republican, will be chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the next Congress, the House Republican leadership said. Mr. Rogers, a former Army officer and FBI Special Agent, played a key role in the enactment of the USA Patriot Act. That Legislation created the agency that fights biological and chemical threats. He also had a major role in forming the Counterterrorism strategy in Afghanistan...

Two Cheers for the Bill of Rights!
As Tim Lynch has already blogged — and as Cato is currently featuring on its front page, today is Bill of Rights Day.  But of course, this is less of a big deal than Constitution Day (September 17, when we release the Cato Supreme Court Review at an annual conference) — because the Bill of Rights is essentially redundant of the Constitution’s original structural protections:  Whenever the government exceeds its constitutionally granted powers, it violates
...

Without A Mandate, ObamaCare Wont Work. Oh No!
In The New York Times, David Leonhardt defends ObamaCare’s Individual Mandate to purchase Health Insurance—and warns of what might go wrong if it is repealed: Two Federal Judges upheld the Individual Mandate this year, saying that it fell under Congress’s power to regulate commerce. But Judge Henry Hudson, of a Federal District Court in Virginia, ruled on Monday that Congress had overstepped by prohibiting a form of inactivity — that is, not buying Insurance. And as Reagan did with

Palin and the Tax-Deal Chart
A note on the chart: Some commenters have been complaining that Palin is a “no,” but has been left blank. Perhaps in an excess of care, we don’t mark potential Candidates “yes” or “no,” until they tell us they are a “yes” or “no” (and we’ve reached out to everyone), or make an absolutely unambiguous statement to that effect (e.g., Pence had been critical of the deal, but we didn’t push him into the “no” cat...

Sebelius and Holder Admit that Obamacare is Fundamentally About Coercion
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. The Washington Post's Ezra Klein and the New Republic's Jonathan Chait, two men who believe as an article of faith that government-run Health Care is the irresistible wave of the future, claim that they aren't fazed by this week's federal District Court ruling declaring ObamaCare's (in the words of the New York Times) "keystone provision" Unconstitutional. Both say that work-arounds could be designed to allow Obamacare to function w...

Unions Recruit Jailed Legislator to Their Cause
The state Public Employee Unions are trying to ram through their contracts before the new Governor and Legislature take over in January.  This is an unprecedented move - generally, they’re taken up months from now - but they know if they can get them through before the whole State Government flips to red, they can get about $154 million in benefits Gov.-Elect Walker had promised to cut. The vote is expected to be close, and the Unions need every vote.  So they go pick...

If Obamacare Is Unconstitutional, Why Aren't Medicare & Medicaid?
A Federal Judge in Virginia has ruled that the Individual Mandate in ObamaCare is Unconstitutional. The “Minimum Essential Coverage Provision” . . . Go NYT’s Special Pleading for Editor’s Wife? Scientists in Berlin have accidentally cured HIV with Stem Cells as well as possibly cured baldness. A huge story with implications . . . Go ...

Administration To Appeal Virginia Court Healthcare Ruling To A Higher Court
Just Reuters headlines for now stating that following up yesterday's announcement by a Virginia Judge who finds sections of the healthcare ruling Unconstitutional, that the Justice Department (where Eric Holder was just taken out of the fridge precisely for this occasion) would appeal the decision to a higher, presumably far more captured, and more corrupt court. More as we see it. I don't want to go partisan here, as I truly hate both, full blown Kabuki Theater 'different' parties with as much...

Question Of The Day, Ctd
A reader writes: Megan asked, "On a reading of the commerce clause that allows the government to force you to buy Insurance from a private company, what can't the government force you to do?" The government forces you to do stuff all the time - they just use a different label: taxes.  For example, the government forces you to save for Retirement by paying Social Security and Medicare taxes every pay check.  In return you get a Pension and reduced rate Health Care from...

David Leonhardt: Obama-Care on Same Level as Civil Rights
David Leonhardt is not happy with a judge’s ruling a vital part of Obama-care - the individual Insurance mandate - is Unconstitutional. In his latest front-page “Economic Scene” column, “In Health Law, Old Arguments Get New Airing,” the paper’s neo-liberal conscience on economic matters compared conservative opposition to Obama-care not only to past opposition to Medicare, but to opposition to Civil Rights for black Americans. “We are agains...

START clears senate hurdle
Ultimately the count was 66-32 vote in favor of proceeding with the Legislation. Ratification of the treaty will require 67 votes. At least one Democratic senator who was not present for Wednesday's vote said he will vote for the treaty when it comes up for final passage. South Carolina GOP Sen Jim DeMint , who said there wasn't enough time to debate the treaty in the Lame Duck session, had threatened to force the entire treaty to be read aloud, but he relented Wednesday under criticism fro...

Democrats, filibusters, and briar patches.
[monotone] Please. Don’t. Stop. [/monotone] Let’s set the (somewhat stylized) scenario, here: The Senate on January 5, 2011 - as per the apparent wishes of Senators Tom Udall of New Mexico and Tom Harkin of Iowa, neither of whom are up for Reelection in 2012 - votes to change the rules so that a simple majority may short-circuit the Filibuster. Cheers and applause from the Progressives; silence from the Republicans. The cheering dies down as progressives realize that t...

Obama Administration defends individual mandate
Attorney General Eric Holder and DHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius are vigorously defending ObamaCare in the wake of Judge Henry Hudson’s ruling finding the Individual Mandate to be Unconstitutional: One day after a Virginia Federal Judge ruled a key part of President Barack Obama’s Health Care reform law was unconstitutional, two members of Obama’s administration spoke out publicly defending the law. In an op-ed piece that appeared on The Washington Post’s website Tuesday...

Sex Pill Peddler Makes It Hard for the Po-Po to Peep at Your Email
Why is Bob smiling? Because police now need a warrant to check his email (joke stolen from Julian Sanchez). Thanks to a huge decision out of the Sixth Circuit, your email and the Fourth Amendment just got better acquainted. The police need to get a warrant to take a peek at the contents of someone’s inbox, writes Judge Danny Boggs — once rumored to be on the SCOTUS shortlist — in the court’s opinion (PDF, via a thrilled EFF). The court says that the 1986 Stored Communicat...

Obamacare Ruling Isn't Just About Healthcare, It's About Freedom
A ruling Monday by U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson has turned the Healthcare Debate on its head. Hudson’s ruling, the first issued by a Federal Court in one of the cases brought by a state or states challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare, held that “The unchecked expansion of congressional power to the limits suggested by the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers. At its core, this dispute is not simply about re...

State of Texas now has a GOP super majority
With a Supermajority, House Republicans will be able [to] establish a quorum and conduct business without Democrats. They can also approve Constitutional Amendments without Democratic support. And this is a good thing if and only if the RINOs of said super majority don't turn around and act like Democrats.  Other than that, two democrats changing their political afiliations after they were elected as Democrats is either a good thing or a bad thing.  Can we ask about Texas Secession?&#...

Florence Shapiro and the educational fix
Florence Shapiro appeared today to discuss the State of Texas dwindling budgets and she stated that this is an ample opportuity to overhaull our educational system.  That would be nice if we were to eliminate Public Schooling which is ramapnt with the NEA and their Marxist ideologies...even in Texas. "This is going to be a whole policy shift," said the head of the Senate's education committee at a breakfast meeting with Plano ISD administrators. "We need to look at this from a completely di...