Courts have already stretched the Commerce Clause beyond all reason. In a 1942 case, the Supreme Court ruled that growing wheat for personal consumption affected interstate commerce because, you see, withholding it from the market created a ripple effect. In a more recent case, it said growing maijuana on personal property for personal use could be regulated under the clause even if it was never sold or moved across state lines. We've almost come to the point where the federal government can call anything an economic activity and regulate it, exercising power never envisioned by the founders.
Almost. That's one reason Obamacare is so scary -- it takes the next logical step of decreeing that deciding not to participate in something is an economic activity that can be regulated. If that is allowed to stand, there is truly nothing the federal government cannot order you to do. U.S. Judge Henry Hudson seems to understand that overreach. In his ruling that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, he got right to the heart of the question of individual choice:
The unchecked expansion of congressional power to the limits suggested by the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision [the mandate] would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers. At its core, this dispute is not simply about regulating the business of insurance—or crafting a scheme of universal health insurance coverage—it's about an individual's right to choose to participate.
This won't be the last word. The issue almost has to be decided by the Supreme Court, which will split 4-4, with Anthony Kennedy the tiebreaker. Hope he shows more respect for individual rights than he did in the spectacularly awful Kelo decision.
(Via Reason's hit & run, which also has a good explanation of why health insurance is not like car insurance):
"The act of driving is not a constitutional right, it's a privilege, and so we can impose conditions on the exercise of that privilege under the state's police power. Living is not a privilege, it's a right, and I can't impose a condition on the mere act of living, which is what the ObamaCare mandate does."
