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The Great Dissent Part III: Justices Argue Obamacare Mandate Unconstitutional Because It's Not a Tax–and Why Mitt Romney is Right

By |2012-07-10T11:40:27-04:00July 10th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published July 10, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

Confusion has reigned over whether Obamacare’s individual mandate is a tax, because politics has gotten in the way of serious discussion (no surprise there). As Governor Mitt Romney tried discussing the issue like the serious businessman and serious lawyer (Harvard Law School) that he is, political operatives were so busy making an important political point that it looked like they were on different pages.

Then Romney brought order to chaos by plainly stating: Obamacare’s Individual Mandate was a mandate with a penalty, not […]

The Great Dissent Part II: Four Justices Explain Why Congress' Power to Regulate Commerce Does Not Save Obamacare

By |2012-07-09T13:49:06-04:00July 9th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published July 6, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

As I explained after the Obamacare decision came down, it is one of the most unfortunate decisions ever handed down by our highest court. This tragedy is only compounded by the fact that the main dissent in the decision was spectacular.

One of the greatest aspects of the dissent was its ringing affirmation of the doctrine of enumerated powers–the cornerstone of our constitutional system, that a central protection of our liberties is that the federal government only has those specific powers granted it by the Constitution.

The second […]

Why Mayberry Still Resonates: 'The Andy Griffith Show' Plays Out Timeless Truths

By |2012-07-09T13:20:47-04:00July 9th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published June 29, 2012 on The Washington Times website.

“Americans loved, and still love, the notion of the small town as a manageable, non-threatening, friendly, finite community. … The black-and-white world that Andy Griffith shaped so masterfully is there for our perusal from a distance, but it is not coming back – either on television or anywhere else.” – Ted Anthony, Associated Press

In an elegant obituary for Andy Griffith, who died on July 3 at age 86, Ted Anthony might be right about the survival of small communities, but perhaps […]

The Great Dissent Part I: Four Justices in Obamacare Make Case for Constitutional Conservatism

By |2020-04-23T21:58:17-04:00July 7th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published July 5, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

One week after the Supreme Court handed down its most consequential decision in decades (if not more than a century–upholding almost all of Obamacare in NFIB v. Sebelius–constitutional lawyers are just beginning to wrap their heads around the Court’s 193-page opinion.

This column is the first in a series that will unpack some of the most consequential aspects of that decision, mostly quoting relevant parts of the decision that will have lasting consequences for the country.

The dissent in NFIB v. Sebelius, written jointly by Justices Antonin Scalia, […]

Obamacare RIP: John Roberts Cannot Save You

By |2012-07-05T20:00:03-04:00July 5th, 2012|

This column by ACRU General Counsel and Senior Fellow for the Carleson Center for Public Policy (CCPP) Peter Ferrara was published July 5, 2012 on Forbes.com.

Progressives are desperate to prevent the country from learning that free market conservatives have long been proposing policies to assure essential health care for all, and achieve all the other goals of Obamacare, at just a small fraction of the costs. That involves a health care safety net ensuring that no one would suffer from lack of essential health care, with no individual mandate and no employer mandate, achieving that goal far more effectively than […]

How to Defeat and Replace Obamacare Now

By |2020-04-23T21:57:08-04:00July 5th, 2012|

This column by ACRU General Counsel and Senior Fellow for the Carleson Center for Public Policy (CCPP) Peter Ferrara was published July 5, 2012 on The American Spectator website.

Whether Left, Right, Independent, or Confused, no one who is not bought and paid for as part of the Obama political machine is going to like the Obama Double Cross of the American people on Obamacare. Before Obamacare was passed, Obama told the American people over and over, even on national TV, that the individual mandate was not a tax. After Obamacare was passed, Obama sent his lawyers into courts all over the country to argue that […]

The Underclass

By |2012-07-05T10:10:50-04:00July 5th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Policy Board Member and Professor of Economics Dr. Walter E. Williams was published July 4, 2012 on Townhall.com.

Anthony Daniels, who writes under the pen name Theodore Dalrymple, is a retired prison doctor and psychiatrist who tells of his experiences with his patients in Life at the Bottom. It’s an insightful book of essays about the self-destructive behavior and attitudes of the underclass.

In one essay, “We Don’t Want No Education,” reprinted by City Journal, Dalrymple says that he cannot recall meeting a 16-year-old from the public housing project near his hospital who could perform simple multiplication […]

It's Independence Day, Not Dependence Day

By |2012-07-04T18:52:45-04:00July 4th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Chairman and CEO and CCPP founder and President Susan A. Carleson was published July 4, 2012 on Townhall.com.

Many Americans refer to July 4th as the Fourth of July, but earlier in our history, it was widely known as Independence Day.

As we celebrate the 236th anniversary of the day that the Founders signed the Declaration of Independence, we might consider going back to the original term. In 1776, Americans were bucking the authority of a faraway tyrannical power — King George III of England — who treated the colonists like second-class subjects.

Today, powerful elites […]

Court's Awful Ruling Taxes Our Patients

By |2012-07-02T11:06:56-04:00July 2nd, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published June 29, 2012 on The Washington Times website.

When is a tax not a tax? Answer: When you’re busy pushing a major expansion of government like Obamacare. The tax that is not a tax becomes a “penalty” or a “shared responsibility payment” in the text of the bill. In campaign lingo, it becomes an “investment.”

That’s what the Democrats told us when they rammed Obamacare down America’s throat. In a famous clip you can find on YouTube, President Obama adamantly denies to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the individual mandate is, […]

One of the Worst Supreme Court Decisions in American History

By |2012-06-29T12:00:48-04:00June 29th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published June 28, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

Chief Justice John Roberts provided the critical fifth vote to uphold Obamacare in its entirety, in a case that will go down as one of the worst and most consequential cases in American history. Now the Taxing Clause of the Constitution trumps the Commerce Clause as the greatest grant of authority to the national government, one that is without any limits that a court can enforce.

We will have more columns on this decision in NFIB v. Sebelius, but this first legal analysis column goes […]

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