Constitutionally Illiterate

Published on Friday, February 5, 2010 by The Baltimore Sun

Constitutionally Illiterate

When even politicians are ignorant of the founding documents, our system is in trouble

by Christopher Dreisbach

On Nov. 5, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House minority leader, took the podium at a Republican rally, waved a document defiantly and declared:"This is my copy of the Constitution, and I'm going to stand here with the Founding Fathers who wrote in the Preamble, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness …" Mr. Boehner was encouraging participants to protest the pending House vote for health care reform by demanding their constitutional right to make medical decisions.

Pop quiz: What's wrong with this picture?

If you said that there is no explicit constitutional right to make medical decisions, you score some points. If you said that the passage Mr. Boehner quotes is from the Declaration of Independence you get an A. If you also noted that the quotation is not even from the Declaration's preamble, you earn extra credit.

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reply to post by milesp


Well, you're close with your criticism, except for the right to make medical decisions part.

The constitution is a bill of negative powers to the federal and state governments.

Unless the constitution explicitly grants congress the authority to run a healthcare system, it is unconstitutional for it to do so.

The 9th amendment secures the right to private medical care to the people.

The 10th amendment secures all governance over such medical care to the states and to the people.

At most, congress could regulate (keep regular) medical care that crosses state lines, but since very few people actually leave the state they are in to seek care, such legislation would be fairly meaningless.



[edit on 5-2-2010 by mnemeth1]