"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
2 comments:
I'm pleasantly surprised by the ruling because I personally like the result, but also because I agree with the Commerce and Necessary and Proper rulings. I continue to be baffled when people say this curtails Congress' preexisting authority (rather than setting a boundary). The first thing I said when I heard of the individual mandate was, "Can they do that?" Limited government is kinda important.
It's strange because the idea of Congress having plenary legislative authority, much less the idea that everyone knows there are no limits to Congress' power, is exactly what my conservative friends have been saying liberals believe all along.
Whereas the dominant view had seemed to me that while SCOTUS has been expansive in accepting various congressional actions under the commerce clause, or necessary and proper, etc, this doesn't imply that there is no limit--it's just a limit that has not yet been reached (or had not, with the commerce clause and ppaca).
It's a little head-spinning to encounter this argument, because even though it meets some desired democratic criteria, it seems profoundly illiberal. Strange.
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