ObamaCare Ruled Unconstitutional in Federal Court

Richmond - Congress exceeded its constitutional authority by ordering most Americans to obtain health insurance, according to a ruling by a U.S. District Judge in Virginia Monday.

Judge Henry E. Hudson held that the commerce clause does not grant Congress the regulatory authority implied in the Patient Care Reform Act of 2010. The requirement was inserted in the law because most health insurance carriers say they cannot afford to cover chronic or pre-existing conditions and diseases unless all are required to carry the insurance.

Under the provisions of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1(2005), “The Commerce Clause emerged as the Framers' response to the central problem giving rise to the Constitution itself: the absence of any federal commerce power under the Articles of Confederation. For the first century of our history, the primary use of the Clause was to preclude the kind of discriminatory state legislation that had once been permissible. Then, in response to rapid industrial development and an increasingly interdependent national economy, Congress 'ushered in a new era of federal regulation under the commerce power,' beginning with the enactment of the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 and the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890.”

Article 1, Section 8, clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution states Congress has power, among others enumerated:

"...To regulate commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes;..."

The commerce clause in the section enumerating congressional powers has been the object of intense political controversy for many years. From it flow federal anti-drug laws, gun control statutes and many other hotly opposed provisions of federal law.

Widespread resentment over the health care reform law led to an upset victory in the census year 2010 midterm elections that will result in Republican lawmakers being seated in more than 800 legislative seats nationwide going into the next terms of state legislatures beginning in January of 2011.