States plan to revolt if ObamaCare becomes law

If Obama manages to ram his health care bill through Congress, he could face something almost unprecedented in our history: a peaceful state revolt against the federal government.

The New York Times painted a picture of the coming prarie fire this morning.

On Thursday, Wyoming’s governor, Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, signed a similar bill for that state. The same day, Oklahoma’s House of Representatives approved a resolution that Oklahomans should be able to vote on a state constitutional amendment allowing them to opt out of the federal health care overhaul.

In Utah, lawmakers embraced states’ rights with a vengeance in the final days of the legislative session last week. One measure said Congress and the federal government could not carry out health care reform, not in Utah anyway, without approval of the Legislature. Another bill declared state authority to take federal lands under the eminent domain process. A resolution asserted the “inviolable sovereignty of the State of Utah under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.”

It's not just traditionally libertarian western states either. Virginia's pro-life attorney general announced he could sue the federal government if his state is forced to comply with ObamaCare.

The pro-abortion government-run health care bill would find itself the subject of a lawsuit from Virginia officials should Congress approve it and Obama sign it into law. A lawsuit from the state could join another potential suit if Democrats use the Slaughter Rule to pass the bill without voting on it.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a pro-life Republican, made the comments about the potential lawsuit in an address to the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday.

He said the Healthcare Freedom Act awaiting Gov. Bob McDonnell’s signature would “will give us more basis to challenge” challenge the legislation, he said, according to the Martinsville Bulletin newspaper.

Although federal law typically trumps state law, if McDonnell signs the Virginia measure, Cuccinelli said “I intend to file suit” to challenge the law’s constitutionality."

But perhaps the most stunning solution is taking shape in Arizona, which is actually planning to nullify the individual mandate in the health care bill.

[T]he Arizona State Senate voted 18-11 to concur with the House and approve the Health Care Freedom Act (HCR2014). This will put a proposal on the 2010 ballot which would constitutionally override any law, rule or regulation that requires individuals or employers to participate in any particular health care system.

HCR2014, if approved by voters next year, also would prohibit any fine or penalty on anyone or any company for deciding to purchase health care directly. Doctors and health care providers would remain free to accept those funds and provide those services.

Finally, it would overrule anything that prohibits the sale of private health insurance in Arizona.

Five other states — Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming — are considering similar initiatives for their 2010 ballots.

Nullification of this type isn't a new idea. When the states got wind that the federal government was planning a national ID card scheme in 2005, more than a dozen passed laws refusing to implement the plan. The feds quickly backed off and REAL ID died on the vine. But for states to actually nullify a codified law, especially one with the scope and fanfare of ObamaCare, is unprecedented. The nullification referendum is also very likely to pass in deep-red Arizona, where polls indicate the public loathes health care reform. If that happens, the nation could face a constitutional crisis not seen since South Carolina tried to nullify federal tariffs in 1832.

The courts generally recognize the supremacy of the federal government over the states, but the Constitution's Tenth Amendment reserves all powers not specifically enumerated to the states. The only possible way to justify ObamaCare under the powers of the Constitution is the Interstate Commerce Clause -- except health insurance companies are forbidden from trading across state lines in the first place. Beyond that, the legislation seems downright unconstitutional, as does the Slaughter Solution that will be used to pass it. As anger at the state level continues to brew, Obama could find himself unable to force his health care plan on the nation.