(MONTGOMERY)— While I respect the Court’s decision, I strongly disagree with its ruling today. The individual mandate was sold to the American people as a penalty when it was proposed, but is now ruled constitutional as a tax, the very thing the Obama Administration and Congress insisted it was not. Now it is up to a new congress and new president to repeal the act.
Make no mistake, the consequences of today’s decision are dire. The law forces the states, private employers and individuals to be used as instruments in carrying out the federal government’s increasingly burdensome policies, including forcing religious based employers, even self-insured ones, to start providing coverage for sterilization and contraception in 2013, without regard to their religious beliefs or conscientious objections.
I, along with other conservative state attorneys general, will continue to stand on the front lines of protecting liberty and pushing back against an ever-encroaching federal government.