Seriously. The congresswoman is the ever-entertaining Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson-Lee. The American Spectator has the story:
Arguing that the Commerce Clause provides the constitutional basis for ObamaCare, Jackson Lee said repealing the law by passing Republicans' H.R. 2 violates both the Fifth Amendment's right to due process and the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause.
“The Fifth Amendment speaks specifically to denying someone their life and liberty without due process," she said in a speech on the House floor moments ago. "That is what H.R. 2 does and I rise in opposition to it. And I rise in opposition because it is important that we preserve lives and we recognize that 40 million-plus are uninsured.
She continued, "Can you tell me what’s more unconstitutional than taking away from the people of America their Fifth Amendment rights, their Fourteenth Amendment rights, and the right to equal protection under the law?”
By Jackson-Lee's logic, of course, any sick person is having his or her rights violated. What is the logical endgame of this sort of logic? Are you seeing it employed elsewhere? Will her constitutional argument have any effect on the repeal effort?
