Constitutionality of health care law ‘unambiguous’

A group of more than 100 leading legal scholars have issued a statement affirming the constitutionality of health-care reform law, despite one federal judge’s ruling to the contrary.
“I’ve never seen such an outpouring of support among law professors before,” UCLA School of Law professor Adam Winkler said during a press call today hosted by the American Constitution Society and the Center for American Progress. “Legal experts nationwide are worried about the bald-faced judicial activism of the lower court in Virginia.”
In their statement, the law professors make clear that “Congress’s power to regulate the national healthcare market is unambiguous.” The professors cite recent opinions by Justice Antonin Scalia and Chief Justice John Roberts that reinforce the broad power contained in the Constitution’s Commerce Clause and “easily” encompass the health care law’s minimum coverage provision.
While we can debate the wisdom of health care reform, the place to do so is in Congress, not in the courts. It’s judicial activism of the worst kind when unelected judges replace their own preferences for the judgments of elected lawmakers.
“We’re talking about the regulation of a $2 trillion industry in this country,” said University of North Carolina law professor Bill Marshall. “The argument that the federal government cannot regulate what is one of the most important aspects of interstate commerce in this country is considerable and could be devastating not just to health care but other kinds of government regulation as well.”