Kagan: Constitution may authorize feds to mandate what you eat

July 7th, 2010 | by Brian Schwartz |

From Michael Tanner at Cato:

Suppose that the federal government, in its infinite wisdom, decided that it would deal with the obesity crisis and improve the health and welfare of the American people — by mandating that every American eat three helpings of vegetables and three helpings of fruit every day. Anyone caught failing to eat the required food would be subject to a fine or tax. Would such a law be constitutional?

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) put that question to Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan this week. Kagan, the US solicitor general, couldn’t answer. In fact, she implied that under the court’s “expansive” view of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, a fruit and vegetable mandate might be just fine.

Now, some may think that such a hypothetical question is silly, other than giving us a glimpse of Kagan’s virtually unlimited view of government power. Congress would never pass such a “dumb” law, to use Kagan’s term — would it?

But Congress has just taken a very similar step, mandating that every American purchase a government-designed package of health-insurance benefits. The issue is now before the courts — there’s a hearing today.

Read the whole article: Elena’s Nanny State, originally published in the New York Post.

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  • Trailmynx
    If one opposes the government's mandating what you should eat does it not follow that the government has NO right to tell you what NOT to consume, this including alcoholic beverages, drugs, cigarettes, undercooked meat, melamine-tainted products, etc. no matter what your age?
    The recent case of the YouTube smoking 2 year old in Indonesia comes to mind. Our govt has no authority to keep a 2 yr old from smoking or drinking here by the strict interpretation of opposition to govt. interference in our intake matters- any admission that there is a line where the govt could regulate this or mandate consumption invalidates the whole argument.
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