Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli sent the following letter about the ObamaCare court challenge:
Dear Fellow Virginians,
As most of you know, today was Virginia’s day in court to defend liberty against the individual mandate contained in the healthcare bill. Virginia’s is the first state case to be heard on the merits of its arguments regarding constitutionality – and according to the judge today, we are likely to hear a decision before the end of the year.
Virginia’s case rests on a single basic premise: That the federal government’s attempt to stretch the Constitution’s Commerce Clause to allow it to force individuals to buy a private product – private health insurance – is unconstitutional. We also have to parry the federal government’s fallback argument, specifically, they argue that the penalty for NOT buying their government-approved health insurance is actually a tax under Congress’ Constitutional Taxing Power. Mind you, it’s called a “penalty” in the law itself and Democrat leaders – including President Obama – argued vehemently that the penalty was NOT a tax before the bill was voted on in Congress (see here).
I am looking forward to providing all of you with a more substantial update, but for now, rest assured that today went very well for Virginia. While we don’t know how the judge will rule, we are confident that we laid out the best case possible in the defense of liberty.
Stay tuned – and thank you all for your tremendous wishes of good luck over the past few days. Your support means a great deal for our cause.
Sincerely,
Ken Cuccinelli, II
Attorney General of Virginia
