It would be unfair to give full credit to the Obama administration and this particular Supreme Court for killing it by themselves. After all, they’ve had a lot of help through our history with like minded authoritarians telling us that immoral monstrocities are actually constitutional.
- Wealthy landowners, with help from government and eminent domain, can steal from poor land owners (Kelo)
- Political speech has less protection than normal speech (McConnell vs FEC)
- Public colleges can discriminate based upon racial quotas (U of Michigan)
- Killing an unborn baby is acceptable out of concern for our “privacy” (Roe v Wade)
- Debtors should be given relief from their obligations in violation of legal contracts (Blaisdell)
- Detention of Japanese Americans is OK during a time of war (Korematsu)
- Wheat farmer can’t grow/consume his own wheat due to national interest and interstate commerce concerns (Wickard vs Filburn)
- Black slaves are property (Dred Scott)
- and many, many, many others which violate natural law and basic humanity
As usual, Murray Rothbard was right when he said
And if the ultimate power to interpret a constitution is given to the government’s own Supreme Court, then the inevitable tendency is for the Court to continue to place its imprimatur on ever-broader powers for its own government. Furthermore, the highly touted “checks and balances” and “separation of powers” in the American government are flimsy indeed, since in the final analysis all of these divisions are part of the same government and are governed by the same set of rulers
ObamaCare and the individual mandate was upheld based upon the argument it is simply a tax. if that is the case…
Don’t want to buy a hybrid car? no problem, that will just be an annual tax of $2000. Don’t want to buy life insurance for your family? No problem, that will be a $500 tax. Don’t want to take advantage of “voluntary” pre-K, no worries, that will be a $300 tax. Don’t want to utilize preventive medical procedures — hey, your choice my friend, that will simply be a $600 tax.
Flip to the other side…don’t want to own a gun due to safety or moral reasons? Tax impact of $200. And on, and on, and on
Smells like liberty to me [sarcasm font]