On Thursday, the Supreme Court sent shockwaves across America, upholding the constitutionality of the federal health care act.

Tenth Amendment Center executive director Michael Boldin said it didn’t surprise him one bit.

“The federal government always expands its own power. The Supreme Court is part of the federal government. I don’t see what’s so shocking here. It’s sad, but not surprising. By ruling, once again, that uniform policies must reign over a nation of 50 states and 300 million people, the Supreme Court has continued its attack on the last vestiges of what’s supposed to make this country great.”

The Court argued that the federal government cannot enforce a mandate through the commerce clause, but it can impose a tax on those who choose not to purchase health insurance. TAC communications director Mike Maharrey called the focus on the mandate “misplaced.”

“The Supreme Court says the federal government can’t force you to do something through a mandate, but it can tax you for doing nothing in order to ‘encourage’ you into doing something. Sounds like Orwellian doublespeak to me. But the bottom line is that the federal government has no enumerated power to create a national health care system in the first place. The entire notion of federal health care is unconstitutional, even if you buy into this tax malarkey.”

And while many opponents of nationalized health care view the ruling as a bitter defeat, Maharrey says the Tenth Amendment Center sees a clear path forward.

“The states simply need to follow Thomas Jefferson’s prescription and nullify the entire act. They should just refuse to implement this monstrosity. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has already indicated he will refuse, and other states should follow his lead.”

Jefferson argued that “when the general government assumes undelegated power, its acts are, unauthoritative, void and of no force,” and he called nullification “the rightful remedy.” Maharrey acknowledged that many Americans consider state nullification rebellious and lawless, but he said he thinks that’s because they are conditioned to believe the states are united on a principle of unlimited submission to the feds.

“Who is really behaving lawlessly here? A federal government that refuses to operate within its delegated powers, and rips authority away from the states and the people? Or the states, working through legitimate democratic processes, saying, ‘No!’ we don’t accept this? I would argue it’s the federal government that’s in rebellion, and it’s time for the states to put a check on illegitimate federal power.”

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The Tenth Amendment Center exists to promote and advance a return to a proper balance of power between federal and State governments envisioned by our founders, prescribed by the Constitution and explicitly declared in the Tenth Amendment. A national think tank based in Los Angeles, the Tenth Amendment Center works to preserve and protect the principle of strictly limited government through information, education, and activism.

Mike Maharrey

Communications director

O: 213.935.0553

[email protected]

www.tenthamendmentcenter.com