Health Care Mandate and the Founding Fathers

For The Instapundit, a long post on Harvard Law Professor Einer Elgauge's use of the Militia Act and the 1790 and 1798 Acts regarding Merchant Seamen to justify the Affordable Healthcare Act.♠  Professor Reynolds on the use of the Militia Act:

The Militia Act argument doesn’t work at all.  First, as Elhauge admits, it’s justifiable under the Militia Clause, not the Commerce Clause.  The Militia Clause empowers Congress to provide for arming, training, and disciplining the militia, and the cash-strapped first Congress chose to “provide for” arming them by requiring adult males to own guns.  This method of arming the miltia existed under the common law and, indeed, in Anglo-Saxon history going back at least as far as the seventh century, so it was hardly a stretch.

Note that it is Anglo-Saxon and not Anglo.♥

The pursuit of the Seaman angle doesn't go very well either.  Check it out.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Not really Obama Care.  Closer to Reid/Pelosi Care.
♥  And, besides, aren't the Angles really Danish?