The Individual Mandate in Obamacare is Unconstitutional

Brian Darling / December 09, 2009

Today, The Heritage Foundation will host an event with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) discussing the constitutionality of the personal mandate to buy heath insurance. Also, Heritage will be releasing a paper authored by Randy Barnett, Nathan Stewart and Todd Gaziano arguing that this mandate is both unprecedented and unconstitutional. No where in the constitution is Congress granted the authority to mandate that individuals enter into a contract with a private party.

The argument is that a mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal government action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States. Both the House and Senate versions of Obamacare would change this, creating a new precedent that the federal government can force you to buy a private service. These mandates would force all citizens to purchase a specified service that is heavily regulated by the federal government. This new mandate takes federal power to a new, unprecedented level. We all need to remember that the federal government is of limited powers and the Constitution does not authorize members of congress to take force citizens to buy heath insurance. (more…)