Yes, Virginia!

IBDEditorials.com

Law: A judge will let proceed a Virginia suit to declare ObamaCare unconstitutional while the state's attorney general says police can check immigration status a la the Arizona law. Somewhere Patrick Henry is smiling.

ObamaCare is unconstitutional, and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli knows it. He also knows our unsecure borders and a stealth amnesty program pushed by this administration threaten citizens as far north as Richmond. That's why he's taken action in both areas, leading the states that formed a group in revolt against it.

Cuccinelli has issued a legal opinion that says Virginia police are allowed under the law to check the immigration status of those encountered in the course of normal police work. "It is my opinion that Virginia law enforcement officers, including conservation officers may, like Arizona police officers, inquire into the immigration status of persons stopped or arrested," he wrote.

He believes states have a right to enforce federal immigration laws as much as they have a right and duty to enforce federal speed limits. The lives and safety of their citizens are at stake, and splitting constitutional hairs does not keep people from being raped, robbed and killed by other people who just should not be here.

Case in point: The Virginia man suspected in a drunken-driving crash that killed a nun in Prince William County last weekend is an illegal immigrant and repeat offender who was awaiting deportation and whom federal immigration authorities had released pending further proceedings.

Yet the Obama administration says state police have no right to check the immigration status of such individuals, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement has threatened not to process them if turned over to ICE for deportation.

Our citizens are not only unprotected at the border. They're also being compelled under ObamaCare to buy health insurance. The feds worry about states' usurping federal authority, but not about the feds' stepping over clearly defined constitutional limits to that authority.

Virginia, along with other states, has filed a lawsuit challenging the medical overhaul passed in March. The Old Dominion State contends the law's requirement that its residents have health insurance violates the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. It does not share the views of those like California Democrat Pete Stark who believe the federal government can do anything it wants.

On Monday, Virginia federal Judge Henry Hudson ruled that Virginia's suit had merit and could proceed, dismissing a motion by Health and Human Services to have it thrown out. While not ruling on the merits, Hudson said: "Never before has the Commerce Clause and Necessary and Proper Clause been extended this far. At this juncture, the court is not persuaded that the (HHS) secretary has demonstrated a failure to state a course of action with respect to the Commerce Clause element."

In layman's terms, the court ruled the feds are pushing the envelope and that Cuccinelli has a point worth further consideration. "This lawsuit is not about health care," Cuccinelli says. "It's about our freedom and about standing and calling on the federal government to follow the ultimate law of the land — the Constitution."

If the federal government can unilaterally repeal the 10th Amendment and force us to buy health insurance, it can force us to do anything, making Congressman Stark a prophet, not a demagogue. Liberty and freedom will be at an end and all of us will be wards of the state.

Our borders and our freedoms are under attack. Virginia once again stands up against a tyrant to secure both.

Sic semper tyrannis.