Feds file motion to dismiss Virginia’s challenge to the healthcare reform bill

  As is well known, there are as many as thirteen states that have filed lawsuits claiming that the healthcare reform bill is unconstitutional. Virginia is one of those states. Virginia recently passed a law that would exempt residents from purchasing healthcare coverage as is required under the healthcare reform bill, stating that the federal government overstepped its bounds according to the tenth amendment of the constitution.

  Kathleen Sebelius filed a motion challenging Virginia’s law that would void the federal law, and in this argument she probably has a case. But she goes on to say that even if Virginia’s law was upheld, congress still had the right to force Americans to purchase a product against their will under the commerce clause in the constitution.

 Even if Virginia could surmount this jurisdictional barrier, its claim still would fail because Congress, in adopting the minimum coverage provision, acted well within its authority under the Commerce Clause

  The theory goes like this; an uninsured person still receives benefits from hospitals, and the cost of those benefits are passed on to the federal government and the people, therefor they affect interstate commerce. I am not buying it, the commerce clause was written with narrow interpretations in mind. The regulating of commerce between the states, such as eliminating tariffs placed on states for importing products into other states, as well as devising a national money system to replace the individual currency of the individual states.

  Over the years the commerce clause has become one of the most abused clauses in the constitution, right up there with the general welfare clause. This is another case of the abuse of the commerce clause and this motion should be struck down.

  It remains to be seen how all of this will play out, but it is going to be very interesting to watch. The fight has just begun.