Good Laws

                    The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is the fact that laws can be found constitutional without being considered to be good laws and good, well-intentioned laws can be found unconstitutional. 

The United States Supreme Court found the Affordable Care Act health care law (known as Obamacare) to be constitutional by a 5-4 vote; however, when Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, he wrote:  "We do not consider whether the Act embodies sound policies.  That judgment is entrusted to the Nation's elected leaders.  We ask only whether Congress has the power under the Constitution to enact the challenged provisions."

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stated this fact very clearly.  "What the Court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States, and that is, I will act to repeal Obamacare.  Let's make clear that we understand what the Court did and did not do.  What the Court did today was say that Obamacare does not violate the Constitution.  What they did not do was say that Obamacare is a good law or that it's good policy."

Romney also declared, "Obamacare was bad law yesterday.  It's bad law today."

Leaders of the United States House of Representatives have scheduled a vote to repeal the entire Obamacare law on July 11, 2012.  Now that the Supreme Court has deemed the mandate constitutional only as a tax, members of Congress will be forced to go on record as to whether to keep or repeal the largest tax increase in the history of our nation.

The fallout from the Supreme Court's decision about Obamacare will continue to be discussed and debated, but true understanding of the Act may never fully come.   I believe that Obamacare is a bad law even though it was found to be constitutional.