As liberal groups begin plotting to spend millions of dollars to “sell” Obamacare to Americans in swing House districts, at least 12 state attorneys general are mounting an effort to stop Obamacare in its tracks on constitutional grounds.
At issue is the provision in Obamacare that forces Americans to buy health insurance or face an annual $750 fine. Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli plans to sue the federal government on grounds that the mandate violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution:
“At no time in our history has the government mandated its citizens buy a good or service,” Cuccinelli said.
Separately, attorneys general in 11 other states – Florida, South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Pennsylvania, Washington, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alabama and Michigan – plan to join together in filing a lawsuit as soon as President Barack Obama signs the legislation into law, according to a Jacksonville Business Journal and Associated Press reports.
In a press conference this morning, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said, “To fine or tax someone just for living … that’s unconstitutional. There is no provision in the Constitution giving Congress the power to do that.”
South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster said Sunday: “The health care legislation Congress passed tonight is an assault against the Constitution … A legal challenge by the states appears to be the only hope of protecting the American people from this unprecedented attack on our system of government.”
The Heritage Foundation’s legal scholars have documented why an individual mandate violates the U.S. Constitution, noting, “Nowhere in the Constitution is Congress given the power to mandate that an individual enter into a contract with a private party or purchase a good or service.”
That fact, however, did not stop Congress from acting outside its authority. Now, it seems, states are taking up arms to defend the tenets of our Constitution that Congress has been so quick to ignore.
