'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
The legal "cognoscenti" among us have begun to transmute shock into a rationalization that confers strategic genius to blunder.
A federal appeals court panel on Friday struck down the requirement in President Obama's health care overhaul package that virtually all Americans must carry health insurance or face penalties.
President Obama's health care law received a chilly reception Wednesday from a federal appeals court that seemed wary of approving a major expansion of government coercion over the economic activity of millions of Americans.
The United States is renowned for its freedom, democratic values and respect for the rule of law. That is, it was until Barack Obama became president ("Not above the law," Commentary, March 9).
The federal health care overhaul's core requirement to make virtually all citizens buy health insurance or face tax penalties is constitutional because Congress has the authority to regulate interstate business, the Justice Department said in its appeal of a ruling that struck down the Obama administration's signature legislation.
The Obama administration has appealed a judge's ruling that found the federal overhaul of the health care system unconstitutional.
The legal immorality of the Obama administration and its Department of Justice now stands fully exposed. And even some lawyers are shocked.
Obamacare is living on borrowed time, and even its most ardent supporters are beginning to realize it. That's why they're racing to implement - and entrench - as much of the plan as possible before the laws of economics and the laws of the land and voters catch up. They're like a deadbeat renter starting a remodeling project after being evicted but before the police escort them from the premises in hopes that it gives them squatter's rights. Meanwhile, two unrelated but devastating events have caused the ground to shake beneath the feet of Obamacare supporters.
A federal judge who declared President Obama's health care overhaul unconstitutional ruled Thursday that states must continue implementing it while the case makes its way through the appeals process.
For years, the left beat the drum that President Bush was shredding the Constitution with the USA Patriot Act, Guantanamo detainments, rendition and execution of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. When President Obama adopted those policies as his own, the left suddenly went as silent as Al Gore during a blizzard.
In time, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson of the Northern District of Florida will some day be seen as a national hero. In the clearest manner, he has combated an unbridled attempt to wreak havoc on our system of government despite limits set by the Founding Fathers to allow our freedom to flourish.
Judge Roger Vinson of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida did not say "Mr. Obama can continue to implement the law while the case winds its way through the appeals courts toward an eventual Supreme Court showdown," as stated in the Feb. 1 article "Judge strikes down health care law" (Page 1).
Edward Smith became known as "the millionaire's captain" because the powerful of his day held him in almost mythical regard. When the estimable Capt. Smith was alerted to the dangers that lay ahead, he proceeded, undeterred, full steam ahead. His new ship, the Titanic, could not be sunk. A hundred years later, those piloting the USS Obamacare are discovering their own rough waters and the devastating ruling in the multistate lawsuit is just one of the icebergs they face.
There have been incidents where it has appeared that the Obama administration has done everything it could to thwart our Constitution and the balancing provisions the three branches of government have followed for hundreds of years.
Years ago, when I was a media fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, I got to sit down with Martin Anderson, one of Ronald Reagan's closest advisers.
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson of Florida agreed in a Jan. 31 ruling that said President Obama's entire health care overhaul is unconstitutional.
But Judge Vinson issued another ruling last week ordering states to continue implementing the law while the case makes its way through the courts.
