Georgetown Professor Handicaps Obamacare Court Challenge Thursday

As U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson prepared to hear arguments in the Obamacare case Thursday morning, Georgetown University law professor Randy Barnett had this to say:

In today's hearing, Judge Roger Vinson will consider a bedrock principle of our Constitution:Do the enumerated powers of Congress have any judicially enforceable limit?

"After two federal judges declined to identify any limits, on Monday Judge Henry Hudson ruled that Congress may not use its power over interstate commerce to mandate that all Americans enter into contracts with private insurance companies.

"Like Judge Hudson, Judge Vinson has already dismissed the government's novel tax power theory.Now he must decide whether the Americans are truly 'citizens' under the Constitution, or whether the Commerce Clause renders them mere subjects of congressional will -- as Americans once were subjects of the King of England.

"Constitutional questions don't get much bigger than this," Barnett said.

In addition to Virginia's challenge to the federal health-care "individual mandate," Florida and 19 other states are pursuing a more sweeping legal attack on the law. Thursday's hearing in Judge Vinson's Pensacola courtroom was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.