The American Pundit

Proponents of government-run health care tend to dismiss the threats of lawsuits from the states as a waste of time and resources. After all, regardless of the Tenth Amendment’s explicit granting of rights to the states and historical precedent, the Supremacy Clause makes all federal law superior to state rights.

But that misses the point. As the Virginia Attorney General said on Fox News a little while ago, the main challenge in these lawsuits wouldn’t involve state rights but overall constitutionality. It’s true that legislation passed by Congress is recognized as superior to the rights of states, regardless of the Tenth Amendment. But federal legislation doesn’t trump the United States Constitution.

The main problem Democrats will face is the individual mandate provision, which requires every person in the United States to purchase insurance from a private entity. Does the Constitution permit the federal government to require citizens, under penalty of imprisonment, to purchase a specific product from a private company? It seems unlikely.

And would a relatively conservative Supreme Court, with Anthony Kennedy typically joining the four conservative justices on individual rights, uphold provisions that require private citizens to purchase private products from a private entity, under the threat of imprisonment? Also unlikely.

Federal law can trump state rights until the end of time, but federal law isn’t worth the paper it’s written on if it violates the Constitution. The Constitution itself is always superior.

Which is why McCain-Feingold has now largely been placed in the trash. Congress can’t just override the Constitution because Speaker Pelosi has “deemed” it so. If the Supreme Court finds federal law in conflict with the Constitution, the federal law is invalidated.