South Carolina to use 10th Amendment to nullify Obamacare

South Carolina to use 10th Amendment to nullify Obamacare
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There is an old adage that infers that a right not practiced eventually makes that right invalid.  This illogical argument is normally used in the instances of the right to bear arms as most Americans have rarely carried sidearms in public view over the past 60 years.

However, another important right for our time that has been downplayed in the public eye as the Federal government has grown in power, is the 10th Amendment, or right of the states to nullify laws created by the government that are not theirs to impose according to the Constitution.  And in the state of South Carolina, the legislature is now imposing their 10th Amendment right to nullify Obamacare as being unconstitutional under the auspices that states cannot be compelled to enforce Federal law per legal precedence.

House Bill 3101, titled the “South Carolina Freedom of Health Care Protection Act,” passed the state House of Representatives last April by a 65-34 vote. The bill now heads to the GOP-controlled Senate with special-order priority, setting up the likelihood that South Carolina will become the first state to exempt citizens and businesses from all participation in the Affordable Care Act.

The bill’s main component prohibits agencies, officers and employees of the state of South Carolina from implementing any provisions of the Affordable Care Act, leaving implementation of the national health-care law entirely in the hands of a federal government that lacks the resources or personnel to carry out the programs it mandates.

This provision, according to Davis, comes from the anti-commandeering doctrine established in case law that says feds can’t compel states to enforce federal laws.

Additional provisions of H3101 further neuter the Affordable Care Act by outlawing state exchanges, issuing tax deductions to individuals equal to the tax penalties levied by the federal government, and directing the state attorney general to sue over whimsical enforcement of the law. Taken together, the provisions effectively repeal the federal law for the people of South Carolina. – Daily Caller via Zerohedge

Using the aforementioned anti-commandeering doctrine, SC House Bill 3101 would in essence force the Federal Government to create, fund, implement, and enforce the Affordable Health Care Act in all regions it covers, and could not compel any state or individual to perform functions of the program without voluntary acceptance.

State Sovereignty and Anti-Commandeering Cases

The anti-commandeering doctrine, recently announced by the Supreme Court in New York v. United States and Printz v. United States, prohibits the federal government from commandeering state governments: more specifically, from imposing targeted, affirmative, coercive duties upon state legislators or executive officials. This doctrine is best understood as an external constraint upon congressional power—analogous to the constraints set forth in the Bill of Rights—but one that lacks an explicit textual basis. – Sage Pub

The Supreme Court ruled that Obamacare was legal under the auspices that Congress and the Federal government have the power to tax, and can impose any such taxes on commerce and trade.  However, it does not have the power to force states and individuals to accept one or more requirements of a law or program, as noted in the opt-out clause Obamacare has for healthcare recipients.  And for the state of South Carolina, this new precedent being created where the Federal government must perform every facet of the program to be legal under the Constitution, will either create a crisis where the government must now spend hundreds of billions of dollars to facilitate the program’s full implementation, or instead, establish a path through which states can choose to fully de-commit from Obamacare, and abolish its power over the states and individuals.

Kenneth Schortgen Jr is a writer for Secretsofthefed.com, Examiner.com, and hosts the popular web blog, The Daily Economist. Ken can also be heard Friday evenings giving an weekly economic report on the Angel Clark radio show.

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