Federal Judge Uses Founding Fathers’, Obama’s Own Words in Overturning ObamaCare

In declaring Democrats’ health care overhaul unconstitutional Monday, Judge Roger Vinson used President Obama’s own position from the 2008 presidential campaign against him, recalling in his opinion how the then-Illinois senator argued that insurance mandates were not the way to go.

“I note that in 2008, then-Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include an individual mandate because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating that, ‘If a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house,’” Judge Vinson wrote in a footnote toward the end of his 78-page ruling.

The judge used Obama’s own words to help describe what he considered the “principle dispute” in the case — not whether Congress has the power to implement a health care mandate, but whether it has the power to force American’s to purchase insurance.

Judge Vinson cited an interview then-Sen. Obama had with CNN in which he said there are other options to solve the health care crisis that could pass constitutional muster. At that time, Sen. Obama’s plan did not require all Americans to purchase insurance while then-Sen. Hillary Clinton’s did.

In fact, [Obama] pointed to the similar individual mandate in Massachusetts — which was imposed under the state’s police power, a power the federal government does not have — and opined that the mandate there left some residents “worse off” than they had been before.

In addition, Judge Vinson based much of his decision on the ideas of America’s founding fathers, specifically referencing James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.

If Congress can penalize a passive individual for failing to engage in commerce, the enumeration of powers in the Constitution would have been in vain for it would be “difficult to perceive any limitation on federal power” [Lopez, supra, 514 U.S. at 564], and we would have a Constitution in name only. Surely this is not what the Founding Fathers could have intended.  See id. at 592 (quoting Hamilton at the New York Convention that there would be just cause to reject the Constitution if it would allow the federal government to “penetrate the recesses of domestic life, and control, in all respects, the private conduct of individuals”) (Thomas, J., concurring).

Under the Obama administration‘s legal philosophy, the federal government could mandate that all citizens eat broccoli, the judge concluded.

As we reported, Judge Vinson, a federal judge in the northern district of Florida, struck down the entire health care law as unconstitutional on Monday, though he is allowing the Obama administration to continue implementation and enforcement of the law while the government appeals his ruling.