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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Class Action Challenges Federal Health Care

LAS VEGAS (CN) - The federal government lacks the authority to force Americans to buy health insurance, a class action claimed Tuesday in Federal Court.

People V. Us, Independent American Party of Nevada, the Nevada Eagle Forum and several individuals claim in a 55-page lawsuit that "the United States Constitution gives Congress no legal authority to, and the Bill of Rights disarms the federal government of, any power to compel citizens who have not purchased, and do not wish to purchase, health insurance."

They say the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama in March, "exceeds the powers of the United States," and that "Congress has no enumerated power ... to compel plaintiffs herein to purchase with after-tax dollar a particular product, here health insurance."

They also say the law violates their right to privacy because it forces Americans "against their will, and without legal authority, to divulge highly personal and confidential information," through the likely creation of a database that will store health care information.

They also say the law doubles as involuntary servitude "because it involuntarily creates a debt and coerces plaintiffs herein to work off the debt by threat of legal sanction." They also claim the law is tantamount to a federally sponsored religion by "promoting and compelling participation in the secular religion of Socialism."

Plaintiffs want the courts to determine the law unconstitutional, and to ban its enforcement.

The lawsuit was filed by Joel Hansen with Hansen Rasmussen.

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