The States to Speaker Pelosi: They’re Serious

Robert Alt / October 14, 2010

When Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was asked by a reporter “where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate,” she responded, “Are you serious? Are you serious?”

Today comes an answer from Florida, 19 other states, and the National Federation of Independent Businesses: they are very serious.  Federal District Court Judge Roger Vinson today rejected the Obama administration’s invitation to throw their case out, allowing the constitutional challenge to proceed.

The 65-page decision is reasoned and methodical.  To give but a taste, the judge spends no less than 22 pages assessing whether the penalty assessed for failing to comply with the individual mandate is a tax or a penalty.  This seemingly arcane issue is important because, despite President Obama and Congress’s claims throughout that the penalty is not a tax increase, the Justice Department has argued in Court that it is, in fact, a tax, in order to rely upon Congress’s taxing powers as an answer to the question that we began with, namely “where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate.”

The federal government’s change in position on this issue earned a strong rebuke from Judge Vinson, who used the Justice Department’s own arguments about congressional accountability against them: (more…)