State Attorneys General Sue over Health Bill

The ink was barely dry from President Obama’s signature on the massive health care bill when more than a dozen state Attorneys General filed suit against the federal government for a breach of Constitutional authority.

Colorado’s AG John Suthers explained, “The Constitution gives Congress the enumerated powers to regulate those engaged in interstate commerce. It does not give the Congress the power to compel a citizen, who would otherwise choose to be inactive in the marketplace, to purchase a product or service and thereby become subject to congressional regulation. Such an expansion of the current understanding of the Commerce Clause would leave no private sphere of individual commercial decision making beyond the reach of the federal government. It would render the 10th Amendment meaningless.”

Our out of control federal government has violated the maximum individual liberty - minimum government coercion model envisioned by the Founders. In his first inaugural address in 1801, Jefferson spoke of “a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” Should Mr. Jefferson cast a glance from his final resting place at what has evolved in Washington, I doubt he would consider it “frugal” or “good.”

We tip-our-hat to the various Attorneys General who have raised the right question in an attempt to push back on the unconstitutional intrusions of the federal government. For that kind of patriotism, Thomas Jefferson would be proud.