Let's Get Constitutional

A number of states have finally grown a pair and are challenging the Federal government's right to mandate purchasing health insurance for all Americans. They are on shaky constitutional ground, but so is the Federal government in my opinion.

ST. PAUL — In more than a dozen statehouses across the country, a small but growing group of lawmakers are pressing for state constitutional amendments that would outlaw a crucial element of the health care plans under discussion in Washington: the requirement that everyone buy insurance or pay a penalty.Efforts are underway in Arizona to bring about state constitutional amendments to block the possibility of insurance mandates and government-run health care.

Approval of the measures, the lawmakers suggest, would set off a legal battle over the rights of states versus the reach of federal power — an issue that is, for some, central to the current health care debate but also one that has tentacles stretching into a broad range of other matters, including education and drug policy.

Scholars are looking into the constitutionality of a federal insurance mandate, but come to different conclusions:

It is constitutional

It is not constitutional