Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Nullification of Affordable Care Act in Full Swing

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Today's liberal commentators and political junkies call nullification an "archaic legal theory that punctuated pre-Civil War disputes between the federal government and states."  I call it the law, and the best weapon the States have to stop a rising tyranny at the federal level.

Should the federal government be controlling the States in such a manner?

Nullification is the States' recourse should the federal government act outside its constitutional authority.  The States created the federal government through the Constitution, granting to the new central government a limited number of powers.  The remaining powers are reserved to the States.

Health Care is not an authority expressly granted to the federal government, therefore, Obamacare is an unconstitutional law - which makes the law "null and void" (As Thomas Jefferson would put it, as per his draft of the Kentucky Resolution).

Illegal laws cannot be the supreme law of the land, so the "federal laws trump State law" argument doesn't work here, either.  Article VI. requires federal laws to be constitutional for them to be supreme.

The fight over the Affordable Care Act, since the federal government won't back down, has come down to nullification. Only 15 States have begun the process of putting in place, and running, Obamacare exchanges.  South Carolina has gone so far as to propose legislation that would penalize anyone for implementing the federal health care law - including federal agents.

The real question is not whether States will nullify the unconstitutional health care law, but whether or not, when the federal government begins to really play hard ball, if the States will continue to stand up to the federal government, rather than fold like a folding chair under the onslaught of legal attacks by Obama.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary


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