Thursday, September 16, 2010
'A Commandeering of the People' - WSJ.com
I read this a while ago. It's about "ObamaCare", and the arguments as to whether it is "constitutional".
It seems to be very complicated, and this professor's last line is not comforting...
It seems to be very complicated, and this professor's last line is not comforting...
James Taranto writes about his discussion with Randy Barnett, a Georgetown law professor:
"'What is the individual mandate?' Mr. Barnett says. 'I'll tell you what the individual mandate, in reality, is. It is a commandeering of the people. . . . Now, is there a rule of law preventing that? No. Why isn't there a rule of law preventing that? Because it's never been done before. What's bothering people about the mandate? This fact. It's intuitive to them. People don't even know how to explain it, but there's something different about this, because it's a commandeering of the people as a whole. . . . We commandeer people to serve in the military, to serve on juries, and to file a return and pay their taxes. That's all we commandeer the people to do. This is a new kind of commandeering, and it's offensive to a lot of people.'
Will this argument prevail? 'If I want to bet actual money, I'll always bet the court upholds anything Congress does,' Mr. Barnett says."
