U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson said the law's requirement that most Americans carry insurance or pay a penalty "exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power."
Hudson wrote that the Interstate Commerce Clause wasn't sufficient for Congress to establish the individual mandate. He said Congress lacked precedent for "regulation of a person's decision not to purchase a product, notwithstanding its effect on interstate commerce or role in a global regulatory scheme."
The Commerce Clause is an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."
The individual mandate "would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers."
Capretta Interview on Obama's Health-Care Law
Cf. http://www.bloomberg.com/video/65230850/
Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- James Capretta, a health-care fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, discusses today's ruling on the Obama administration's individual health-care mandate. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson in Richmond, Virginia, today ruled that the requirement in President Barack Obama’s health-care legislation that most citizens maintain minumum health coverage is unconstitutional because it goes beyond Congress’s powers to regulate interstate commerce. Capretta talks with Bloomberg's Megan Hughes. (Source: Bloomberg)
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