Claremont Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence files brief supporting PLF's Obamacare challenge

December 03, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Our friends at the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence have filed a brief in support of our challenge to the Obamacare “tax.” The brief explains the history of the Origination Clause and why it is that our founding fathers chose to give only the House the power to draft “bills for raising revenue.” “By checking the power to originate new or increased taxes with the combined frequency of elections and the intimate relationship of the people and its Representatives, the Founders created a system which ‘nourishes freedom and in return is nourished by it.'” The brief also explains that if the PPACA does impose a “tax,” then it must be a “bill for raising revenue” subject to the Origination Clause requirement because it “is paid into the Treasury by individuals when they file their tax returns and is enforced by the IRS ‘in the same manner as taxes.’ The funds are not dedicated to health care, health insurance, or any specific purpose. The Senate-originated ‘individual mandate’ tax law constitutes the ‘essential feature’ of a tax beacuse, as the Court held, it generates revenue for the Government.”

(Read the rest here…)