The Judicial Crisis Network Files Two Amicus Curiae Briefs on Behalf of Forty-Four U.S. Senators & Speaker Boehner - Arguing that Obamacare Violates the Commerce Clause
WASHINGTON, DC--- Today the Judicial Crisis Network (www.judicialnetwork.com) filed two amicus curiae briefs, arguing that Obamacare is unconstitutional. The group’s brief on behalf of a group of 44 U.S. Senators argued that the law violates the Commerce Clause. Another brief, on behalf of Speaker of the House John Boehner, argued that the Necessary and Proper Clause also provides no constitutional authority for the law. This follows the appellate briefs which were filed on May 4 by the plaintiff-appellees. Twenty-six states, the National Federation of Independent Business, and individual plaintiffs sued the federal government last spring and won a judgment holding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare, unconstitutional because there is no federal authority for the Individual Mandate requiring all Americans to buy health insurance. Oral argument is scheduled for June 8.
“Congress does not have the authority to force all Americans to buy health insurance. This step from regulating economic activity to regulating inactivity is novel and unprecedented,” said Carrie Severino, Chief Counsel and Policy Director to the Judicial Crisis Network. “In our government of limited, enumerated powers, every act of Congress must rest on a constitutional grant of authority or it is illegitimate, since powers not given to the federal government in the Constitution are reserved to the States and the people.”
The Commerce Clause allows the federal government to “regulate Commerce … among the several States,” and has been interpreted broadly by the Supreme Court to allow regulation of things actually in interstate commerce, the channels of interstate commerce, and even intrastate activities that have a “substantial relation” to interstate commerce. But the Individual Mandate in the PPACA goes even farther than this already-expansive understanding of the Commerce Clause to allow regulation that would force activity itself, i.e., the purchase of health care.
While the Necessary and Proper Clause can provide authority for provisions that implement or enforce a validly enacted law, it cannot provide independent authority for a provision. In this case, the government is arguing that the Individual Mandate is necessary to remedy problems created by Obamacare's constitutionally valid provisions. This is not a recognized basis for constitutional authority.
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