Law & Justice: February 2011 Archives
Federal judge upholds Obamacare under the theory that "mental activity" is "activity" and can be regulated by Congress.
[Judge Gladys Kessler] claimed that Congress has the right to regulate mental activity that has an economic effect.Oh, you think I am kidding? Well, dear reader, here’s a direct quote:
As previous Commerce Clause cases have all involved physical activity, as opposed to mental activity, i.e. decision-making, there is little judicial guidance on whether the latter falls within Congress’s power…. However, this Court finds the distinction, which Plaintiffs rely on heavily, to be of little significance. It is pure semantics to argue that an individual who makes a choice to forgo health insurance is not “acting,” especially given the serious economic and health-related consequences to every individual of that choice. Making a choice is an affirmative action, whether one decides to do something or not do something. They are two sides of the same coin. To pretend otherwise is to ignore reality.
So... this judge believes that Congress can literally regulate what we think. In our own brains.
Legal Insurrection says of the Commerce Clause:
The following sentence has now become a justification for regulating decision-making even where the decision is just to do nothing:The Congress shall have power.... To regulate commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes;
I find it hard to believe that our Founding Fathers intended that interpretation.
Scott Stewart breaks down the various classes of weapons used by Mexican drug cartels and explains where the weapons come from. Hint: despite the widespread myth, far less than 90% come from America.
As we discussed in a previous analysis, the 90 percent number was derived from a June 2009 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to Congress on U.S. efforts to combat arms trafficking to Mexico (see external link).According to the GAO report, some 30,000 firearms were seized from criminals by Mexican authorities in 2008. Of these 30,000 firearms, information pertaining to 7,200 of them (24 percent) was submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for tracing. Of these 7,200 guns, only about 4,000 could be traced by the ATF, and of these 4,000, some 3,480 (87 percent) were shown to have come from the United States.
This means that the 87 percent figure relates to the number of weapons submitted by the Mexican government to the ATF that could be successfully traced and not from the total number of weapons seized by Mexican authorities or even from the total number of weapons submitted to the ATF for tracing. In fact, the 3,480 guns positively traced to the United States equals less than 12 percent of the total arms seized in Mexico in 2008 and less than 48 percent of all those submitted by the Mexican government to the ATF for tracing. This means that almost 90 percent of the guns seized in Mexico in 2008 were not traced back to the United States.
Perhaps Mexico should loosen their gun laws and America should loosen our drug laws?
J. Christian Adams accuses the Obama Department of Justice of stonewalling Freedom of Information Act requests from political opponents while fast-tracking requests from political allies.
Eric Holder’s Justice Department has even politicized compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. According to documents I have obtained, FOIA requests from liberals or politically connected civil rights groups are often given same day turn-around by the DOJ. But requests from conservatives or Republicans face long delays, if they are fulfilled at all.The documents show a pattern of politicized compliance within the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. In particular, I have obtained FOIA logs that demonstrate as of August 2010, the most transparent administration in history is anything but. The logs provide the index number of the information request, the date of the request, the requestor, and the date of compliance.
Let's see the logs. If these accusations are true then the people responsible should go to jail.
Ann Althouse dismembers Larry Tribe in an agonizing public display of sarcastic ridicule. Oh, it's about Obamacare, but that's almost incidental.
(HT: Instapundit.)
