1992 Texas Gun Case Parallels Health Care Reform Lawsuit

In 1992, a student from Edison High School in San Antonio brought a .38-caliber handgun to school. This set in motion a legal battle, in which the student ended up facing federal charges for violating the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. However, according to the Houston Chronicle:

The Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, threw out his conviction five years later on the grounds that Congress exceeded its regulatory authority under the Constitution when it approved the 1990 law, which makes it a violation of federal law to possess a firearm in a school zone.

Sound familiar? This 1992 Supreme Court ruling could play a huge role in the legal battle 13 state attorneys general are waging on Obama's health care reform bill.

In 1990, the Supreme Court Chief Justice Rehnquist said:

Upholding the federal government's right to control guns in school zones would give Congress “a general police power of the sort retained by the states.”

This is the same argument the state attorneys general are now making regarding Obama's health care bill.

Experts see the lawsuit as having a very good chance of success, especially since Congress entered uncharted waters in approving health care.
...Since the Texas case was decided, Rehnquist has died and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a swing vote who sided with the majorities in the 1995 and 2000 rulings, has retired. In their places are two solid conservative votes, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Last year, moderate-liberal Justice David Souter resigned and was replaced by a like-minded jurist, Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
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