An Enormous Victory For Liberty

An Enormous Victory For Liberty
by Newt Gingrich

Monday’s ruling by federal judge Henry Hudson that a key provision in the Obama health care law is unconstitutional is an enormous victory for all Americans who care about liberty.

Judge Hudson declared in his 42-page opinion that the law’s requirement for most Americans to obtain health insurance was unconstitutional:

“Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market.”

Hudson also wrote that allowing Congress to exercise such authority “would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers.”

Full repeal is going to be a very long, difficult fight, but Monday’s ruling is a huge victory that should not be overlooked. The individual mandate was the lynchpin upon which the entire health care law stood. A significant portion of the funding was to come through the fines that were to be collected from those who fail to purchase insurance.

Furthermore, the logic behind requiring insurance companies to accept those with pre-existing conditions was predicated upon a requirement that all people are required to be insured, otherwise people will simply sign up for insurance once they get sick.