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Sign AFP's Statement to the Supreme Court
Americans for Prosperity firmly believes that one of the founding principles of American governance is that the sovereign States created a federal government with limited and enumerated powers. The U.S. Constitution expounds those limits and any action taken by the Federal Government in excess of those powers is a violation of the liberty of the States and their citizens.
The individual mandate, in the President’s health care law, compelling all citizens to purchase a product from a private company is an unconstitutional violation of those limited and enumerated powers. The Framers intended that Congress only be able to use the Commerce Clause to regulate interstate economic activity, or activities that substantially affect interstate commerce. However, Congress may not use the clause to force otherwise inactive citizens to enter a marketplace and purchase a product against their will.
Furthermore, the Obama administration’s insistence that the individual mandate is a “necessary and proper” means of accomplishing otherwise Constitutional ends is a gross misunderstanding of Congressional power. The Necessary and Proper Clause does not grant Congress new powers such that they may violate other limitations on their power, in this case the Commerce Clause. Both the means and the ends of Congress’s action must be Constitutional.
Americans for Prosperity believes that the individual mandate is unconstitutional and that it cannot be judicially severed from the underlying law. We believe the President’s entire health care law must be struck down.
