Well, OK, I guess:
At the request of some Indiana Republicans, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller is reviewing the constitutionality of the health-care overhaul
bill passed by the Senate last month.
Several Republican senators say the bill's requirement that most people buy insurance or face a penalty violates the Constitution's ban on taking private property for public purposes without just compensation.
Republicans also say a provision that could treat some insurance companies in Nebraska and Michigan differently violates the 14th Amendment's equal-protection clause.
Zoeller says he is using a little-known provision in the state law that allows the attorney general to make "any reasonable or appropriate investigation or study" of federal legislation when asked to do so by a member of the state's congressional legislation, which he was, in a letter from U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar.
It will be good to know Zoeller's legal opinion of the legislation, but what's Congress going to do even he he does find it unconstitutional? "Oh, drat, you caught us. We take it all back, and you can consider health care reform dead." Since when has the federal government cared a whit about the constitutionality of what it does? It's supposed to provide for the "general welfare," right? Everydody knows that covers anything it wants to do.
