WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and 35 of his colleagues filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court Friday on behalf of the bipartisan, multi-state challenge to the Democrats’ health spending law.“Americans have been telling Washington for years now that they oppose a 2,700 page health spending bill that dramatically increases costs and expands the reach of the federal government into their health care decisions,” Sen. McConnell said. “In addition to determining the constitutionality of the mandate, that individuals purchase health insurance, the Supreme Court also will consider whether the mandate is severable from other provisions of the PPACA; in other words, whether the other provisions of the law are legally viable in the event the Court finds the mandate unconstitutional. We believe the mandate is not severable from the PPACA because the law will not function as its Congressional proponents intended or achieve their objectives without the presence of the mandate.”
Since its enactment, Senate Republicans have twice submitted an amicus brief in the lower courts in support of the states and private parties that are challenging the PPACA in federal court. This would be the first of two amicus briefs filed by Senate Republicans in the Supreme Court case.
The following are excerpts from the amicus brief:
“If this Court holds that the mandate is indeed unconstitutional, as amici believe the Court should, the Court must then determine a solution that maintains the proper balance between the legislative and judicial branches. To do so, the Court must follow Congress’ intent and evaluate whether Congress would have enacted the statute without the individual mandate. The Court cannot stray from that intent and drastically alter the law through deletion of an essential component, leaving in place a statute which the governing majority would not have chosen.
“The authors of the PPACA and its proponents believed the individual mandate was indispensable to their reform scheme… Several proponents of the law argued in committees and on the floor that the individual mandate was essential to their view of health care reform and that the legislation would not work without the mandate. More than merely a component of the insurance reforms, the majority in Congress believed that the entire health care reform effort of the PPACA was unsustainable without it.
“This Court must defer to this clear expression of Congress’ intent regarding the role of the individual mandate… To maintain the Constitution’s balance, this Court cannot ignore Congress’ determination as to what is essential to the PPACA’s scheme and leave in place a statute Congress would not—and did not—enact.”
“If Congress intended for the PPACA to survive without the individual mandate, it could have protected its major legislative reform simply by including a clause which would have guided this Court and resulted in a strong presumption of severability – a clause which was already before it in a prior version of the PPACA. Congress did not do so.
“Under these circumstances, this Court cannot leave a patchwork alternative to the PPACA in place without the heart of the legislation. Rather, such a determination must be left to the elected representatives of the people.”
The brief was signed by: Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Sen. Daniel Coats (R-IN), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV), Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. James Risch (R-ID), Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA).
Tags: Republican, Health Care, democrat, federal health care, obamacare, Amicus Brief, United States Supreme Court, Individual Mandate, Unconstitutional To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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