On Monday, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's challenge to the constitutionality of Obamacare's individual mandate overcame its first legal hurdle. His lawsuit protests the federal government's claimed authority to regulate a person's decision not to purchase a product such as insurance.
"I don't think in my lifetime we've seen one statute that so erodes liberty than this health care bill," Cuccinelli said in a recent interview with The Heritage Foundation's Rob Bluey. Be sure to watch Bluey's exclusive interview on YouTube.
In rejecting the administration's request to dismiss Virginia's case, U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson wrote about the dubious logic of the mandate:
Unquestionably, this regulation radically changes the landscape of health insurance coverage in America. … No reported case from any federal appellate court has extended the Commerce Clause or the Tax Clause to include the regulation of a person's decision not to purchase a product, notwithstanding its effect on interstate commerce.Just one day after the Virginia decision, the people of Missouri, a bellwether state in 2008, brought their opposition to Obamacare to the ballot box. The results: by a margin of almost 3 to 1, Missourians don't approve of the mandate and they want out.
