Letter to the Editor: "The Iowa Legislature wrote the law, Ben Steines followed the law and the judiciary should not be in the business of rewriting it on their own"

Posted: Wed, Dec 26, 2018 11:26 AM

(The following Letter to the Editor has been submitted by Thomas Hansen of Decorah):

"In your latest editorial, you had high praise for the judiciary here in America as a model for the world. I could not agree more. What I disagree with is your statement about the role of the judiciary as "to try to interpret what lawmakers had in mind when they passed a certain piece of legislation." The recent ruling by Federal Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas concerning the Affordable Care Act (ACA) proved this opinion of the role of the judiciary as incorrect, in a major way.

In started back in 2012, when the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) delivered its ruling on the constitutionality of the federal mandate to buy health insurance as part of the ACA. As original written, individuals were to be "fined" for not buying health insurance as required by law, something I find completely antithetical to the principles upon which America was founded and it seemed likely the mandate was going to be found unconstitutional. Then, Chief Justice John Roberts took it upon himself to "interpret" what the lawmakers had in mind when writing the law and changed the wording from "fined" to "taxed". He then sided with the more liberal justices on the court and shockingly found the mandate constitutional.

In 2017, the mandate was effectively eliminated as Congress reduced the tax penalty for not having insurance to zero. Then, last Friday, Judge O'Connor ruled that since SCOTUS had upheld the mandate back it 2012 based on Congress' ability to impose a "tax" penalty upon individual and since that penalty no longer existed, the mandate was now unenforceable and unconstitutional. He took it a step further though and since SCOTUS had also ruled the "mandate was not severable from the rest of the ACA," ruled the entire law now unconstitutional.

In 2012, SCOTUS should have ruled the mandate unconstitutional and sent it back to Congress to be rewritten. Instead, one unelected official acted like a dictator, bypassed our legislative process and rewrote the law passed by our elected representatives as he "interpreted" it should be and we now have an unmitigated mess. It is not the job of the judiciary to add to, rewrite or interpret the law as they see fit which is exactly what is being asked in the current situation with the 29 absentee ballots here in Winneshiek County. The Iowa Legislature wrote the law, Ben Steines followed the law and the judiciary should not be in the business of rewriting it on their own. History should now have proven that."