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http://gawker.com/5748196/why-was-the-entire-health-care-law-ruled-unconstitutional Why Was the Entire Health Care Law Ruled Unconstitutional?
.... ...There will be more rulings and appeals going forward, but this is going to land at the Supreme Court at some point within the next 100 years. And then the future of America's health care system will depend on how Justice Anthony Kennedy feels the morning he has to make a decision. What would his opinion look like if he's, say, hungover? Maybe we'll find out. ....
...he (VINSON) explains it with a nod to the Boston Tea Party and the platitudes of the current Tea Party: ....
...So when you defend it under the Commerce Clause before a judge like Roger
Vinson who
doesn't see the natural difference between health care — something that all humans will have to pay heavy costs for during their lifetimes —
and every other form of "commerce," like the luxury product tea, then you're likely to get a hyperventilating ruling that claims there's no limit to what the federal government can do in any industry now.
How else did Judge Vinson make his ruling, though? Well,
he watched a nifty video on the Reason magazine blog: ....
Whether you think it's enough to protect the law under the Commerce Clause or not, uninsured people do have an effect on interstate commerce.
If there's a large population of uninsured folks in one place
who get unpaid treatment in emergency rooms, then everybody else — taxpayers or policy holders elsewhere —
pay more. Vinson, though, just writes a math joke. ....
See you in a few years, Justice Kennedy!
Send an email to Jim Newell, the author of this post, at newell@gawker.com.
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