Roger Vinson (Senior United States District Judge) quoted James Madison 'the chief architect of our federalist system' in the second page of his ruling:
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.You can read the ruling here.
If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal
controls on government would be necessary. In framing a
government which is to be administered by men over
men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable
the government to control the governed; and in the next
place oblige it to control itself.
"For the reasons stated, I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded
the bounds of its authority in passing the Act with the individual mandate." -Roger Vinson
DONE and ORDERED the 31st day of January, 2011.
'It is difficult to imagine that a nation
ReplyDeletewhich began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving
the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in
America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people
to buy tea in the first place. If Congress can penalize a passive individual for failing
to engage in commerce, the enumeration of powers in the Constitution would have
been in vain for it would be “difficult to perceive any limitation on federal power”
[Lopez, supra, 514 U.S. at 564], and we would have a Constitution in name only.' (Page 42 of 78 of ruling)