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Obamacare Day 3: Does Medicaid Expansion Violate 10th Amendment?

By |2020-04-23T21:58:18-04:00April 2nd, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published March 31, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

For a century, legal scholars wondered if a federal spending program could ever violate the 10th Amendment by coercing the states to go along, since the states are sovereign and equal in stature to the federal government. The final issue the Supreme Court will decide is whether Obamacare’s massive expansion of Medicaid–and sticking the states with part of the price tag–is the first program to cross this constitutional limit.

As Paul Clement–the lawyer representing 26 states in the Obamacare case–summarized to the Court: “The expansion […]

Obamacare Day 3: Court May Strike Down Entire Law, Not Just Mandate

By |2012-03-30T18:35:15-04:00March 30th, 2012|

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

If the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare’s individual mandate (which is very likely after yesterday), will it also strike down President Obama’s entire 2,700-page law? The justices signaled they might do so during the third day of Supreme Court arguments.

Most of the time when part of a law is invalid, courts “sever” that part from the rest of the law and save the rest. This ruling of “severability” often coincides with the law at issue having a severability clause, where Congress declares that if […]

Day 2: Supreme Court Will Likely Strike Down Obamacare, 5-4

By |2020-04-23T21:57:09-04:00March 29th, 2012|

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

On Day Two, Justice Anthony Kennedy noted that Obamacare “changes the relationship of the Federal Government to the individual in a very fundamental way.”

With those words, the individual mandate–the centerpiece of Obamacare–is likely doomed.

Liberal law professors–and some conservatives–speculated beforehand that President Barack Obama might win 6?3, or maybe even 7?2. They predicted that Chief Justice John Roberts might join Kennedy to uphold the mandate. Others said Justice Antonin Scalia might join them. One liberal even predicted that Roberts would write the opinion himself.

There’s exactly […]

Obamacare, Day 1: Supreme Court Will Declare Game On

By |2023-03-10T08:04:46-05:00March 29th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published March 27, 2012 on Brietbart.com.

The Supreme Court appears to reject the argument that it lacks jurisdiction to decide Obamacare’s fate until 2015. We should all expect the red-hot issues surrounding Obamacare to be decided by the end of June, for better or worse. And the Obama administration is trying to have its cake and eat it, too.

It’s well known that many are challenging the legitimacy of Obamacare’s individual mandate. Fewer know that there is a second issue of whether Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid is unconstitutional, and whether striking down either provision also […]

Profiling

By |2012-03-28T10:14:03-04:00March 28th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Policy Board Member and Professor of Economics Dr. Walter E. Williams was published March 28, 2012 on Townhall.com.

Right now, there isn’t enough known about the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a black, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old part-Hispanic, during his neighborhood watch tour in an Orlando, Fla., suburb. If evidence emerges that Zimmerman’s actions were not justified, he should be prosecuted and punished; however, there’s a larger issue that few people understand or have the courage to acknowledge, namely that black and young has become synonymous with crime and, hence, suspicion. To make […]

A Budget America Can't Live Without

By |2020-04-23T21:58:18-04:00March 28th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Chairman and CEO and CCPP founder and President Susan A. Carleson was published March 28, 2012 on Townhall.com.

The House Republican Study Committee (RSC) has proposed a federal budget that not only can America live with – it cannot live without.

It is a serious plan with responsible measures for achieving fiscal sanity in an appropriate and reasonable time frame. The RSC budget will reach balance in just five years, as opposed to balancing the federal budget in 10 years at the earliest under Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s proposal.

This is not pie-in-the-sky thinking – our […]

ACLU Gins Up Contraception Controversy in Arizona

By |2012-03-27T08:31:46-04:00March 27th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published March 27, 2012 on The Daily Caller website.

While the Supreme Court weighs the constitutionality of Obamacare and the nation reels from the Obama administration’s order that Catholic hospitals must provide contraceptives and abortifacients to their employees, the ACLU of Arizona is attacking a proposal to restore employers’ freedom of conscience.

House Bill 2625, sponsored by Republican State Senator Debbie Lesko, would allow all Arizona employers to opt out of the federal contraception mandate. To the ACLU, this is tantamount to shutting off medical care to women.

The ACLU has […]

Securing the Safety Net

By |2012-03-12T07:58:13-04:00March 12th, 2012|

This column by ACRU Chairman and CEO and CCPP founder and President Susan A. Carleson was published March 11, 2012 on The American Thinker website.

As the sheer audacity and real costs of ObamaCare become more apparent every day, we can’t say we weren’t warned.

Back in 1961, Ronald Reagan explained the allure and dangers of “free” medical care:

One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It is very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. Most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything […]

The Loud and Clear Message In President Obama's Budget

By |2012-02-24T13:44:15-05:00February 24th, 2012|

This column by ACRU General Counsel and Senior Fellow for the Carleson Center for Public Policy (CCPP) Peter Ferrara was published February 24, 2012 on Forbes.com.

Last week, I discussed the central economic policy of President Obama’s budget and accompanying Presidential budget message. What drives economic recovery and growth according to the President and his budget is federal spending, deficits and debt, the fundamental tenets of the Keynesian economics that arose in the 1930s.

If you agree with that, then President Obama is your man for reelection in 2012. If you think that’s nuts, however, then the message of the budget […]

ACRU Files Supreme Court Briefs Defending Arizona and Challenging ObamaCare

By |2012-02-13T15:32:15-05:00February 13th, 2012|

Feb. 13 — An American Civil Rights Union brief filed today at the U.S. Supreme Court argues that Arizona has the right to enforce existing federal law regarding illegal immigrants. The Justice Department had sued Arizona over its new law directing law enforcement personnel to ask for proof of citizenship when stopping people for law violations.

The brief, authored by ACRU General Counsel Peter Ferrara, states:

“Arizona is ground zero for the illegal immigration tidal wave, with over one-third of all illegal border crossings in the nation in that state alone. This includes gang members in Mexican drug cartels and criminals fleeing their home countries […]

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