ObamaCare ruling: more Commerce Clause idiocy

posted at 2:27 pm on February 23, 2011 by
[ Healthcare ]   

Another federal judge has found for the Constitutionality of the individual mandate. But if ever you’ve wondered what tortured logic looks like (made in an effort to justify something that just doesn’t fit) then you’ll be amazed to read the following from the ruling:

As previous Commerce Clause cases have all involved physical activity, as opposed to mental activity, i.e. decision-making, there is little judicial guidance on whether the latter falls within Congress’s power….However, this Court finds the distinction, which Plaintiffs rely on heavily, to be of little significance. It is pure semantics to argue that an individual who makes a choice to forgo health insurance is not “acting,” especially given the serious economic and health-related consequences to every individual of that choice. Making a choice is an affirmative action, whether one decides to do something or not do something. They are two sides of the same coin. To pretend otherwise is to ignore reality. [emphasis added]

William Jacobson boils it down for you:

Our thoughts are now actions. There literally is nothing the federal government cannot regulate provided there is even a hypothetical connection to the economy, even if the connection at most is in the future.

Excuse me while I sit down and ponder all of that for a moment. Anytime you make a choice not to act you are "acting".  Therefore, the court has now decided, any decision to not to act (related to commerce) is an act and you can be therefore required to do what the government says you must do.

Or, more succinctly, you have no real choice regardless of what you decide, so sayeth the court.

If I decide not to buy a car, I’m acting, and if the government wanted to require me to buy a car, under this ruling, it could.

Good lord.

That’s just absurd (but Government Motors will most likely be putting together a heck of a lobbying effort to carry this ruling out to its logical end).

Oh and borrowing again from Jacobson, a little reminder of where all this “legal thought” is supposedly grounded:

The Congress shall have power…. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

Blowback

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Our thoughts are now actions. There literally is nothing the federal government cannot regulate provided there is even a hypothetical connection to the economy, even if the connection at most is in the future.

Thought Police anyone?

We have gone from having a Limited government to one that judges you based on thought.

George Orwell was way too much of an optimist.

Chip on February 23, 2011 at 2:36 PM

One other thing – Are so-called Liberals even pretending to be in favor of Liberty any more?

Or has Obamacare and the New Civility finally ripped away the mask?

Chip on February 23, 2011 at 2:57 PM

The “Other” Rush says it best.

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that’s clear
I will choose free will.

Are we sure this judge isn’t Canadian?

The_Livewire on February 23, 2011 at 3:02 PM

Stay with me here.

Twenty plus years ago, I was driving around in a part of Queens, N.Y. that I was unfamiliar with and had to get to still another part of Queens I was unfamiliar with. I stopped by a cigar stand and ask the guy there, “how do I get to _______”? He looked at me and said, very matter-of-factly: “you can’t get there from here”.

I remember it because he was so sure and my brain doesn’t work that way. I knew that of course I “could get there from here”. So I thought for a second and asked him: “where can I go to so that I could then get there from there”. It worked. I got some directions from the guy and was there in 20 minutes.

The problem with Progressives is they look at the Constitution that way. If it simple states: “The Congress shall have power…. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;”

They know you can’t get from that to a mandatory purchase of a health insurance policy. They know that full well.

So they simply ask: “where can I go to so that I could then get there from there” and then they mix that thought process with magic rainbow unicorn sugar fairy dust and PRESTO!

Opposite Day on February 23, 2011 at 3:27 PM

I say we re-word this to our advantage and the lefties outrage. Let’s take another section from the judge diktat:

To put it less analytically, and less charitably, those who choose–and Plaintiffs have made such a deliberate choice–to file local, state and federal taxes at levels that incur tax exemptions will benefit greatly when they require government assistance, as they surely will, from the free welfare, education, retirement and other social services provided by the government. In short, those who choose not to accept tax liabilities will ultimately get a “free ride” on the backs of those Americans who have made responsible choices to provide for those services we all must face at some point in our lives.

By federal judicial decree we may now abolish the 13th Amendment and mandate compulsory labor in exchange for government assistance, especially if the individual receiving those benefits elects to accept exemption from paying taxes.

Mr Snuggle Bunny on February 23, 2011 at 3:33 PM

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Allahpundit on February 23, 2011 at 8:36 PM

This is outright tyranny and given that the exercise of power by the government is inherently violent, lady liberty’s face down in a ditch.

ronsfi on February 23, 2011 at 5:18 PM