Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says the new Health Care Reform Law is the only time in America’s history in which people have been punished by the government ‘solely for being alive,’ and he tells 1200 WOAI news that he is asking a federal judge in Florida for a ‘summary judgment’ which will declare ‘Obama Care’ to be unconstitutional.’

A ‘summary judgment’ is when a judge issues a ruling in a case without even hearing arguments, because the argument for one side or the other is overwhelming.  U.S. Justice Department lawyers are also asking for a summary judgment upholding Health Care Reform.

Abbott says Health Care Reform violates the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution.  The Tenth Amendment specifically guarantees that the state will have the right to any powers not specifically granted to the federal government, and Abbott says five states have already passed laws forbidding ‘the sort of governmental coercion imposed by the individual mandate.’

But Abbott’s most powerful argument is the Ninth Amendment argument.  Congress approved Health Care Reform by using the so called ‘Commerce Clause’ of the Constitution to justify the ‘Individual Mandate,’ which requires that all Americans buy health insurance or pay a penalty or face some other type of punishment, generally having their income tax refunds withheld.

“The Individual Mandate’ is unprecedented,” Abbott said in his filing with the judge. “Never before has Congress required Americans to purchase a good or service based simply on the fact of their residence.

Abbott says the ‘Commerce Clause’ regulates a person’s ‘activity.’  The Commerce Clause, for example, allows Congress to mandate automobile fuel efficiency standards because it has the right to regulate ‘activity,’ in this case, the buying and selling of automobiles.

But Abbott says an American choosing not to buy health insurance is in fact not engaging in activity, and he even quotes Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, defining active’ as ‘characterized by action rather than contemplation or speculation, opposed to passive.’

“The individual mandate applies across the board,” Abbott said. “People have no choice and there is no way to avoid it.  Those who fall under the individual mandate either comply with it or they are penalized.  It is not based on an activity that they make the choice to undertake. Rather, it is based solely on citizenship and on being alive.”

WOAI