Wednesday, October 16, 2013 How the 9th & 14th Amendments can be used to defeat the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) Much has been said and wondered about how to defeat the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Currently the Republican controlled House of Representatives has had the courage to try to defund and delay the law by attaching it to a current struggle going on with the Democratic controlled Senate and President. However one strategy for the defeat of the provisions for defeating Obamacare has been completely overlooked. That strategy and method is to look at what the US Constitution itself says regarding laws such as Obamacare. The Founding Fathers of the Republic gave the states and people of the United States a very powerful tool for redress against Government intrusions into their lives. Having seen the way the British Colonial Governments had repeatedly broken the laws of the land and damaged and denied peoples natural rights through arbitrary policies and legal actions, the Founders wanted to make sure that the peoples rights would forever be protected from tyrannical actions by a Government gone mad with power. Having seen the horrors of war, they knew that a strong legal tool in an independent judiciary would be a good way to try to prevent the people from resorting to violence when it came to protecting their natural rights. The legal tool that the Founding Fathers gave the American People came in the Bill of Rights in the form of the 9th Amendment to the US Constitution. The 9th Amendment states, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” Although this is fairly clear language, some people may not understand fully what this means. Put into the everyday language of people today, the 9th Amendment means that the Government cannot at any level create laws that infringe upon, deny, damage, or disparage any natural rights retained by the people that have or have not been expressed in law or the Constitution. Simply put it means the Government cant make laws take away your natural rights that you are born with as long as in exercising those rights you are not bringing harm to another person. The 9th Amendment has been used in the past to protect retained natural rights such as the right to control ones body (Roe v. Wade) and the right to privacy and freedom from government mandates on birth control (Griswold v. Connecticut 1965) . Today the 9th Amendment can be used to protect the retained natural right of freedom of choice by the people. Obamacare by its mandates that all people buy health insurance or be penalized infringes, denies and disparages the natural right retained by the people to freedom of choice to decide whether or not to purchase a service they may not want or need. Thus it violates the 9th Amendment. The 9th Amendment in combination with Section 1 of the 14th Amendment can be used to completely defeat the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. The 14th Amendment was passed following the Civil War to ensure that Americans rights would further be protected. Section 1 of the 14th Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The Supreme Court has ruled in many cases that the 14th Amendment applies not only to the states but also to the federal government. Using the provisions of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment along with the naturally retained right of freedom of choice from the 9th Amendment the people can fight Obamacare. Section 1 of the 14th Amendment states that the government cannot deprive a person of their liberty or property. By Obamacare first denying the natural right to freedom of choice and then penalizing someone for not participating in its system, the law violates not only the 9th Amendment but also deprives people of their liberty and property by forcing them to purchase a service they may not want or need or penalizing them for not having that service. Thus Obamacare is in violation of the 9th and 14th Amendments. Using this information, We the People can petition our government for redress of this grievous action and can also use the 9th and 14th Amendments in legal cases brought before our courts to have the provisions of the Affordable Care Act overturned and declared unconstitutional. While the Republican controlled House of Representatives should be commended for its stand and the Republicans in the Senate who support them should be commended for trying to defund or delay Obamacare, the law needs to be completely overturned. The 9th Amendment in combination with the 14th Amendment gives us the legal basis needed for overturning the Obamacare law. Sources: “9th Amendment,” Legal Dictionary legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary/9th+Amendment “14th Amendment,” Cornell University Law School Legal Information Institute legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary/9th+Amendment Posted by Robert Dyer at 8:14 AM No comments:
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 02:38:56 +0000