Why they need to read the Constitution in Congress

January 20, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Timothy Sandefur

Priceless. Rep. John Lewis explains that the federal government can force us all to buy health insurance because of that “pursuit of happiness” clause in the Constitution.

Oh….wait….

Update: Note that this is not merely a matter of him mis-speaking. Yes, the “pursuit of happiness” is a line from the Declaration of Independence and not the Constitution, but that might be a slip of the tongue. Lewis goes further than that: he believes that the idea of the pursuit of happiness—which to the founders meant your right to earn a living and keep the fruits of your labor, to enjoy your family and your friendships and your private rights without interference—means the right to get “free” stuff taken from other people. And he then cites the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause—a provision that nobody has ever suggested is the constitutional authority for ObamaCare. The issue here is the Commerce Clause, not the Equal Protection Clause—which, by the way, only applies to states! Lewis clearly has no clue about the content of the legislation—let alone about the Constitution.