Supreme Court of the United States Seal
June 29, 2012
Not all of us are the most articulate when it comes to our nation’s history, and our own Constitution. However, most of us here (at the minimum) understand the importance of our government being restrained under our rule of law. I’m making this post as a means to help clear some muddy waters, for those who may not comprehend just how ObamaCare is a violation of the Constitution in legal terms.
For starters:
The SCOTUS ruled that ObamaCare as well as, the Individual Mandate, are constitutional because it was deemed, and I quote, “a tax.”
The President nor the SCOTUS have been granted any such authority by we the people, to impose taxes on we the people. Only the House of Representatives has the Constitutional Authority to raise revenue (taxes) on we the people.
ObamaCare is officially INVALID according to the SCOTUS ruling, and cannot legally be applied, without breaking our fundamental laws.
U.S. Constitution: (Article 1 Section 7) All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.
Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.
Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.
As you can see, a clear violation of Article 1 Section 7. Now let us continue to the 10th Amendment.
Also, ObamaCare, as well as the SCOTUS ruling, are invalid due to a violation of the 10th Amendment. The SCOTUS does NOT have supreme power over the constitution. The constitution IS higher than the power reserved to the Supreme Court Justices, because the constitution IS the SUPREME LAW of the land.
Healthcare is not a power that was delegated to the United States Government per the constitution. Thus, ObamaCare is officially invalid under the 10th Amendment as well. Why? Healthcare is a power that resides within the power of the states, and their citizens.
U.S. Constitution: (10th Amendment) The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
The third argument you will face, is often the misconception about our nation’s history, and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court does not truly possess the power of Judicial Review, but, the Supreme Court has been using Judicial Review since the 1800’s even without Constitutional Authority. The following will help put this into context more precisely.
Judicial Review
The Supreme Court of the United States spends much, if not most, of its time on a task which is not delegated to the Supreme Court by the Constitution. That task is: Hearing cases wherein the constitutionality of a law or regulation is challenged. The Supreme Court’s nine Justices attempt to sort out what is, and what is not constitutional. This process is known as Judicial Review. But the states, in drafting the Constitution, did not delegate such a power to the Supreme Court, or to any branch of the government.
Since the constitution does not give this power to the court, you might wonder how it came to be that the court assumed this responsibility. The answer is that the court just started doing it and no one has put a stop to it. This assumption of power took place first in 1794 when the Supreme Court declared an act of congress to be unconstitutional, but went largely unnoticed until the landmark case of Marbury v Madison in 1803. Marbury is significant less for the issue that it settled (between Marbury and Madison) than for the fact that Chief Justice John Marshall used Marbury to provide a rationale for judicial review. Since then, the idea that the Supreme Court should be the arbiter of constitutionality issues has become so ingrained that most people incorrectly believe that the Constitution granted this power.
Powers of the Supreme CourtArticle III of the Constitution provides for the establishment of a Judicial branch of the federal government and Section 2 of that article enumerates the powers of the Supreme Court. Here is Section 2, in part:
Section 2. The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;
to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;
to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;
to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;
to Controversies between two or more States;
between a State and Citizens of another State;
between Citizens of different States;
between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.
Feel free to examine the entire text of Article III to assure yourself that no power of Judicial Review is granted by the Constitution.
“Well,” you might say, “someone has to review laws for constitutionality. Why not the Supreme Court?” Some possible answers:
First and foremost, it is not a power granted to the Supreme Court by the Constitution. When the Supreme Court exercises Judicial Review, it is acting unconstitutionally.
It is a huge conflict of interest. The Federal Government is judging the constitutionality of its own laws. It is a classic case of “the fox guarding the hen house.”The Constitution’s “checks and balances” were designed to prevent any one branch of government (legislative, executive or judicial) from becoming too powerful and running roughshod over the other branches. There is no such system of checks and balances to protect the states and the people when multiple branches of government, acting in concert, erode and destroy the rights and powers of the states and the people.
Even if the Supreme Court could be counted on to keep the Executive and Legislative branches from violating the Constitution, who is watching the Supreme Court and will prevent the Judicial branch from acting unconstitutionally? Unless you believe that the Supreme Court is infallible (and, demonstrably, it is not), then allowing the Supreme Court to be the sole arbiter of Constitutionality issues is obviously flawed.
Justices are appointed for life. If the court upholds unconstitutional laws, there is no recourse. We the People cannot simply vote them out to correct the situation. Thomas Jefferson wrote, in 1823:
“At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account.”
It is the Constitution, not the Supreme Court, which is the Supreme Law of the Land. Even the Supreme Court should be accountable for overstepping Constitutional limits on federal power.
There are only nine Justices and, under the current system, it takes only a simple majority — five votes — to determine a case. Given the supermajority requirement mandated by the Constitution to pass Constitutional amendments, a simple majority requirement by the Supreme Court, to uphold a suspect law, defies the spirit of the Constitution. If 44.44% of the Supreme Court justices (four of nine) think a law is not constitutional, we should err on the side of caution and declare it unconstitutional.
The people and the states have little control over the makeup of the Supreme Court.
Officials in all three branches of government take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution. The Supreme Court Justices, Senators, Congressmen, and Vice President, and other federal officers, all take an oath of office to “support and defend” the Constitution. (The president’s oath of office in Article II, Section 1, requires that he “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”) Why is the Supreme Court’s version of “constitutional” considered more authoritative? Is the Judicial branch more to be trusted than the Executive or Legislative branches? Prudence dictates that we be wary of all three branches (and especially wary of the one unaccountable branch).
Given that it was the people and the states which established the Constitution, it is the states who should settle issues of constitutionality. The Constitution is a set of rules made by the states as to how the government should act. The “judicial review” paradigm allows the government to make its own rules with no say by the original rule-makers — the states.
The Constitution was created by the states and any question as to the meaning of the Constitution is rightly settled by the states. When you make rules for your children, do you permit your children to interpret your rules in any manner they like? Of course not. Yet, the states are permitting the federal government — the “child” of the states — to do exactly that.
Since the power of Judicial Review is not expressly granted to the Supreme Court by the Constitution, this power, per the tenth amendment, is “reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Read that last listed reason above again, for it contains the key to this site’s being. The Constitution is very clear; any power to review laws to see if they are constitutional belongs to the states and to the people. Therefore, the Supreme Court is itself acting unconstitutionally when it exercises the power of ‘Judicial Review.’ It would require a Constitutional Amendment specifically granting this power to the court in order for ‘Judicial Review’ to be constitutional!
And just how should the determination of “constitutionality” be handled? For that answer, it helps to understand how the Constitution is (supposed to be) amended.
Related articles
- Congress: ‘It’s Not a Tax.’ SCOTUS: ‘Yes It Is.’ (cato-at-liberty.org)
- Sen. Rand Paul: ObamaCare Isn’t Constitutional ‘Just Because A Couple People On The Supreme Court’ Say So (mediaite.com)
- Supreme Court Rules Against We the People…AGAIN (libertyendanger.com)
- SCOTUS: ObamaCare Decision is Not a Victory for Obama! (patriotwarrior.org)
- SCOTUS Strikes Down Individual Mandate in ObamaCare, But Upholds the Rest as a Tax (sfcmac.wordpress.com)
- ObamaCare Ruling: Washington Overrules the Constitution and the American People. Again – Tea Party Nation (gds44.wordpress.com)
- 13 Reasons Why The Revolution Might Start with Obamacare (libertycrier.com)
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