Thomas More Law Center wants ObamaCare ruling reversed

The Thomas More Law Center wants to reverse the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge George Caram Steeh who was the first federal judge to rule on the merits of Obamacare. The bill’s formal title is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Steeh upheld the constitutionality of the PPACA on the unprecedented grounds that, pursuant to the Commerce Clause, Congress can regulate not only economic activity, but economic decisions as well.  Consequently, according to Judge Steeh, Congress can regulate a private citizen’s decision to not purchase healthcare by penalizing that decision as a matter of federal law.

The Thomas More Law Center, along with co-counsel, David Yerushalmi, filed its opening brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in its first in the Nation challenge to the constitutionality of ObamaCare.  TMLC is challenging the ObamaCare mandate that requires all legal residents to purchase “minimum essential” healthcare coverage under penalty of federal law. 

TMLC had vowed to appeal the ruling in October.

Steeh was appointed to the bench by former president Bill Clinton who made healthcare a primary issue. Then First Lady Hillary Clinton attempted to expand government control over healthcare but failed.

In its brief, TMLC argued that the district court erred as a matter of law when it upheld the constitutionality of the individual mandate provision of Obamacare.  TMLC pointed out “that while the court below recognized that the Individual Mandate is unprecedented in that it penalizes the mere status of being uninsured (in fact, it punishes the mere status of ‘being’), the lower court took it upon itself to extend the Supreme Court’s extant Commerce Clause jurisprudence beyond its current limits of commercial or economic activity.” 

TMLC argued that  “the lower court has created a new kind of Commerce Clause power not previously known to the jurisprudence, which effectively grants the federal government state police power, thereby rendering any notion of the constitutionally mandated federalism dead letter law.”

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Christian heritage and moral values. TMLC is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations and is recognized by IRS as a section 501 (c)(3) organization.

(Filed by Kay B. Day/Dec. 17, 2010)