VERBATIM POST
The past two weeks have seen two major Federal court decisions that directly affect our Obamacare Class Action lawsuit. Two weeks ago the Supreme Court confirmed that individual Americans have the right to sue when the Federal government oversteps its Constitutional authority. Then, just yesterday, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Constitutionality of Obamacare’s individual mandate.
The 6th Circuit’s ruling is upsetting. However, it ironically helps our OCA lawsuit. You see, Liberty Legal Foundation has been arguing all along that under current precedent, Congress has no real limitations on its authority, and that this flies in the face of clear language from the Constitution. The 6th Circuit’s ruling yesterday confirms and emphasizes Liberty Legal’s argument. The three-judge panel wrote three separate opinions. Two of the judges upheld the individual mandate while one dissented. What is important to Liberty Legal’s Obamacare lawsuit is the reasons that all three judges gave for their decisions. All three judges essentially agreed that current precedent leaves no appreciable limitations on Congressional authority.
The two majority opinions explain that the 1942 Wickard v. Filburn case granted Congress authority to regulate inactivity. They are correct. The dissenting opinion argues that the courts should draw a line between activity and inactivity. While the dissenting judge is correct that the Constitution protects all Americans from Congressional regulation of inactivity, the majority opinions are also correct that Wickard does not allow such a distinction.
This is why the OCA is so important. Every other lawsuit against Obamacare is making the same mistake. They are all focusing on the individual mandate in an attempt to tinker with the mess that is current precedent. By accepting and attempting to tweak existing commerce clause precedent, rather than focusing on the core underlying problem, they fail. If we are to re-establish our Constitutional Republic we must fix the underlying problem: the 1942 Supreme Court’s gross misinterpretation of the commerce clause in Wickard v. Filburn.
The best news coming out of the 6th Circuit’s opinion is that some Federal judges understand the core problem. Here is the concluding paragraphs from the 6th Circuit’s dissenting judge:
“In [a recent decision] the Supreme Court recognized that the direction of its existing Commerce Clause jurisprudence threatened the principle of a federal government of defined and limited powers, and it began the process of developing a new jurisprudence more compatible with the Constitution. That process was interrupted by Raich [another recent case], where a majority of the Court was unwilling to expressly overrule a landmark Commerce Clause case in Wickard, which had been the law of the land for over sixty years. Notwithstanding Raich, I believe the Court remains committed to the path laid down by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O’Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas to establish a framework of meaningful limitations on congressional power under the Commerce Clause. The current case is an opportunity to prove it so. If the exercise of power is allowed and the mandate upheld, it is difficult to see what the limits on Congress’s Commerce Clause authority would be. What aspect of human activity would escape federal power?”
The answer to that last question is NONE! That has been our point all along. The dissenting judge is correct in his assessment of the ultimate outcome, but he is wrong in his conclusion that current precedent allows for a line to be drawn at the “activity/inactivity” distinction. This point is made very well by the other two 6th Circuit judges. So, the answer is that Wickard must be overturned.
Liberty Legal Foundation is the only group that makes this point. Our Obamacare Class Action lawsuit is the only lawsuit currently in the system that argues that ALL of the Obamacare law is beyond Congressional authority, not just the individual mandate. We are the only group arguing that Wickard must be overturned. All the others are arguing that Wickard should be interpreted to allow Obamacare and similar laws, but not the individual mandate. None of the other lawsuits will save our Constitutional Republic. The OCA has the potential to do so.
Just two weeks ago the Supreme Court confirmed its intention “to establish a framework of meaningful limitations on congressional power under the Commerce Clause,” as recognized by the 6th Circuit’s dissenting judge. In Bond v. United States the Supreme Court said:
“The Framers concluded that allocation of powers between the National Government and the States enhances freedom, first by protecting the integrity of the governments themselves, and second by protecting the people, from whom all governmental powers are derived…Federalism also protects the liberty of all persons within a State by ensuring that laws enacted in excess of delegated governmental power cannot direct or control their actions. By denying any one government complete jurisdiction over all the concerns of public life, federalism protects the liberty of the individual from arbitrary power. When government acts in excess of its lawful powers, that liberty is at stake.” Bond v. United States, 564 U.S.__ (2011), at slip op. 8-10; citing Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452, 458 (1991).
Recent history, including Obamacare, has shown that tinkering with post-Wickard precedent fails to achieve the goal of “establishing a framework of meaningful limitations on congressional power under the Commerce Clause.” For this reason I believe that the Supreme Court is finally ready to consider overturning Wickard. Our job is to help that along by pointing out that the first 150 years of Supreme Court precedent disagrees with Wickard. In fact, until 1942 ALL courts ASSUMED that the commerce clause authority was very limited. That interpretation was based upon clear statements of the Founding Fathers.
We are strategically positioned to make this unique argument to a Supreme Court that is ready and waiting for exactly this argument. Please continue to help by telling everyone you know about the OCA and Liberty Legal. The more members we have in the Obamacare Class Action the more respect we will get.
Thank you all for your continued support.
In Liberty,
Van Irion
Co-Founder, Lead Counsel
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