Measured and Found Wanting

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson struck down the government's effort to require every citizen to purchase health insurance. The judge advanced the opinion that if people did not wish to buy somethng, it was no place for the government to compel them to buy it. The decision came in the case Commonwealth of Virginia v. Sebelius, 10-cv- 00188, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Richmond).

The Obama administration’s requirement that most citizens maintain minimum health coverage as part of a broad overhaul of the industry is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled, striking down the linchpin of the plan.

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson said today that the requirement in President Barack Obama’s health-care legislation goes beyond Congress’s powers to regulate interstate commerce.

Hudson found the minimum essential coverage provision of the act “exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power.”

Of course it does.

The ruling is the government’s first loss in a series of challenges to the law mounted in federal courts in Virginia, Michigan and Florida, where 20 states have joined an effort to have the statute thrown out.

“I am gratified we prevailed,” Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said in a statement. “This won’t be the final round, as this will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court, but today is a critical milestone in the protection of the Constitution.”

Such decisions should be based on the law. Unfortunately, liberal judges do not feel that is the case, and thus the case ends up getting reported as liberal versus conservative judge. That is not useful to the discussion, as to take that view one assumes that the law is all in the eye of the beholder. Such is the way of things in corrupt states, whose governments are not constrained by the law.

 We should point higher for our government and courts.