Thursday, July 5, 2012

SCOTUS and the Collapse of States' Sovereignty

The ongoing collapse of the boundaries between the federal government and the sovereign, individual states has been accelerated by the recent ObamaCare decision.  Conservatives should put aside speculations about John Roberts's legal casuistry or his supposed capitulation to White House and media pressure.  The fact of the matter is that neither the reduction of the influence of the Commerce Clause nor the expansion of congressional authority to tax, much less Justice Roberts's psychological difficulties -- real or perceived -- is the chief issue at stake in the recent and disastrous 5-4 Supreme Court decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act.
The continuing destruction of state sovereignty has been accompanied by the jettisoning of the First Amendment and its guarantees, with churches and church institutions being forced to bow to federal intrusion and authority.  The demolition of the Bill of Rights firewall protecting individuals from the predations of their own government and the evaporation of the distinctions among the three branches of government are yet two more profoundly disturbing consequences.
The demise of the constitutional boundaries separating the federal government, institutions, and individuals has been so swift and profound that one might even call what is happening to our country a bloodless coup of the executive branch.
But in particular, the enactment and results of the Affordable Health Care Act are proving as dangerously divisive and threatening to states' sovereignty as the issue of slavery was before the Civil War. 

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