When Justice Amy Coney Barrett was being confirmed for the Supreme Court last year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that “millions of families’ health care [would] be ripped away” if Trump's nominee took her seat.
Yesterday, Pelosi's prediction turned out to be unfortunately incorrect.
Coney Barrett joined conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh along with liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Stephen G. Breyer, and John Roberts to uphold Obamacare and maintain the federal takeover of America's health care system.
In the case, California v. Texas, the plaintiffs argued that since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 zeroed the penalty for not purchasing health insurance (the "mandate"), it was no longer a constitutional exercise of Congress’ taxing power (which is how SCOTUS justified it in previous cases). In addition, their suit contended that the mandate could not be divorced from the rest of Obamacare and so the entire law had to be struck down if the mandate was unconstitutional.
But the 7-2 majority threw out the case not because they determined that Obamacare's mandate (or lack thereof) is constitutional but because the plaintiffs didn't have "standing" to sue. Since the penalty associated with the individual mandate—the basis for filing the suit—did not pose any financial harm to the plaintiffs, SCOTUS argued the case should be thrown out.
“No one claims these other provisions violate the Constitution,” Breyer wrote. “Rather, the state plaintiffs attack the constitutionality of only the minimum essential coverage provision. They have not alleged that they have suffered an ‘injury fairly traceable to the defendant’s allegedly unlawful conduct.’ For these reasons, we conclude that the plaintiffs in this suit failed to show a concrete, particularized injury fairly traceable to the defendants’ conduct in enforcing the specific statutory provision they attack as unconstitutional. They have failed to show that they have standing to attack as unconstitutional the Act’s minimum essential coverage provision.”
The ruling, of course, simply dodged the question, as Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his dissenting opinion: "A tax that does not tax is allowed to stand and support one of the biggest Government programs in our Nation’s history. Fans of judicial inventiveness will applaud once again. But I must respectfully dissent,” Alito said.
If you were hoping you could trust the Supreme Court to limit federal power, this decision comes as a disappointment. Even with a "solid" 6-3 "conservative" majority, SCOTUS punted on their constitutional duty to strike down Obamacare, and they only solidified its status moving forward.
There's only one group we can trust to defend liberty and self-governance: We the People. And our most powerful tool is an Article V Convention of States.
A Convention of States has the power to propose constitutional amendments, and those amendments can get at the root of the problem with the federal government. The Supreme Court runs in circles deciding whether this or that law is constitutional or not, but that's not the most important question. The most important question is, "Does the federal government have the power to dictate healthcare decisions in the first place?"
The answer, of course, is NO, and a Convention of States can propose constitutional amendments that say as much. Washington shouldn't be in the healthcare business. It shouldn't be in the energy business or the environment business or the economics business. In fact, it shouldn't legislate or spend money on any topic not expressly mentioned in the Constitution. Those issues should be left up to the states, where We the People have a real voice in government.
Over 5 million Americans have realized the truth: none of the three branches of the federal government have any interest in limiting their power. It doesn't matter which party controls Congress, the White House, or the Supreme Court. If we want to restore the balance of power between the federal government and the states, we must call a Convention of States.
Join the 5 million Convention of States supporters and sign the petition today asking your state legislators to use their constitutional power to limit the federal government with a Convention of States.