Arkansas Lawmakers Sign On To Obamacare Challenge!
…And the worthy effort to topple the rickety structure of the Affordable Care Act continues apace. The libertarian Cato Institute and a host of other organizations from the right side of the political spectrum, along with several hundred state lawmakers from points far and wide, have filed a friend of the court brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down this unholy law. Strike it down, they declaim!
Included on the list are 58 Arkansas legislators, all Republicans, whose names I’ll not list here because it would require retyping all them, which would be tedious. But they’re listed in the appendix of this PDF, so hurry yourself over there if you must know who’s on the list.
The question at hand, per the brief:
Can a limited government to whom a free people have delegated only certain enumerated powers commandeer that people into purchasing a product from a private business pursuant to its power to pass laws “necessary and proper for carrying into execution” the authority to “regulate Commerce…among the several States?”
Good question! But to discover the exciting conclusion, you’ll have to read the whole 53 page brief (PDF), so please clear off your schedule for the afternoon. And then get back to me with whatever the answer is.
I’ve written extensively about Obamacare here on the Arkansas Project, but my preoccupations have focused more on the law’s shoddiness and sloppiness and general overall air of incompetent ineffectuality, rather than questions of constitutionality or state sovereignty. So if you want more of that side of the argument, go check out the full document at Cato’s site.
ARKANSAS PROJECT FLASHBACK! In January, two members of the Arkansas Congressional delegation, Rep. Tim Griffin and Sen. John Boozman, signed on to another amicus curae brief protesting the individual mandate in Obamacare. Last summer, Lt. Gov. Mark Darr signed on to a similar challenge to the law.
(H/T those youthful firebrands at The Arkansas Patriot, who were all over this a full 24 hours ago)
Cato Files Supreme Court Brief on the Constitutionality of the Individual Mandate (Cato Institute)
Thanks for the h/t.