Time magazine did an excellent profile of Virginia’s (mostly) awesome and freedom-fighting Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli.
Just as Sarah Palin harnessed Facebook as a medium to inveigh against Beltway elites, Cuccinelli has leveraged his niche at the nexus of politics and the law to stir up supporters. This is the paradox of the perch: he is an unabashed partisan elected to an office that prioritizes public service over politics, a defender of the Constitution eager to rewrite parts of it. His 14 seasons as a youth-basketball referee, he says, were a perfect preparation for the controversies he’s weathered, “because every time you blow the whistle, half the people are mad at you.” It tends to be the same half.
He has hardly soft-pedaled his principles. “For all the criticism of me, there’s one thing you won’t hear anybody say, and that’s that I’ve pulled the wool over anyone’s eyes,” Cuccinelli tells TIME. “One of my unique features as a politician is that I am so blunt and so forthright, and I put my cards on the table to such a degree people aren’t used to that there’s nothing left to hide.”
Read the rest here.
Good news for anyone who is opposed to the individual mandate requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance. Virginia’s lawsuit against the mandate has taken a step forward, as a judge gave it the okay to proceed today. From Fox News:
“U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson said he is allowing the suit against the U.S. government to proceed, saying no court has ever ruled on whether it’s constitutional to require Americans to purchase a product.
‘While this case raises a host of complex constitutional issues, all seem to distill to the single question of whether or not Congress has the power to regulate — and tax — a citizen’s decision not to participate in interstate commerce,’ Hudson wrote in a 32-page decision.”
I sure hope the lawsuit succeeds. If judges still care about the Constitution, it will. Although the Commerce Clause gives the federal government the power to regulate interstate commerce, it does not allow the government to force people to engage in commerce.
Yes! The Virginia state legislature just stuck it to the man by passing a bill blocking the federal government from forcing people to buy health insurance!
The House of Delegates passed the bill 80-17, including 21 Democrats. Republican Governor Bob McDonnell plans to sign it, making it law. It gives the state the right to intervene to defend people who do not want health insurance and do not want to pay a penalty to the federal government.
This is a good day for liberty. It should be a no-brainer that a federal law requiring all pepole to buy health insurance is unconstitutional. By banning the individual mandate, Virginia is standing up for the 10th Amendment and for individual freedom.
If “health care reform” passes (knock on wood that it doesn’t), then this issue very well might eventually make its way to the Supreme Court. Additionally, at least 34 other states are considering passing similar measures. Go, Virginia!
