Monday, September 13, 2010

Possible out for states opposing Obamacare

Virginia (and more than 20 other states) are suing the federal government to void the portion of the law that mandates individual policies for almost everyone.
This might not be such a big deal if they succeed if the law were like so many other laws as most laws have a boilerplate severance clause which allows for the remainder of a law to remain in force if any portion of the law proves to be unconstitutional.
But the thousands of pages that make up this bill do not contain this clause, so if the one portion demanding each person buy insurance for themselves is shot down in court, the whole law will become invalid.
This shows that Congress either a) believed there was no chance that any part would be found invalid, b) didn't care a fig about constitutionality, or c) planted a self-destruct to be able to claim they "tried" without ending up as uber-badguys in the history books.

I'm thinking 'b'.

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