July 6, 2011--What Would Thomas More Say?

Last Wednesday in the first appellate review of the 2010 health care law, the Obama administration prevailed as a three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that it was constitutional for Congress to require that Americans buy health insurance. (See linked New York Times article.)

The heart and soul of all the advancing legal challenges to the law is the mandate that uninsured Americans be required to obtain medical insurance. Those appealing claim it is unconstitutional to compel and fine those who do not want to do so. That is an abrogation of their right to, in one of the appellant's arguments in the Sixth Circuit, to remain "inactive."

The majority opinion found that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution is sufficient to justify this requirement since to permit the uninsured to remain uninsured affects the larger health care economy. In effect, we all wind up paying for the care of the uninsured when they show up, for example, at emergency rooms seeking "free" treatment.

We will of course see what the Supreme Court has to say about this. Knowing the ideological lineup of the Court it can be assumed that almost all have already made up their minds. Thus the outcome of the case, and the fate of Obamacare, will reside with one or perhaps two potential "swing" justices.

Beyond the merits of the case, I was curious to see that it was the Thomas More Law Center that took the lead in seeking to have the health care law declared unconstitutional. Aren't they the ones, I wondered, who in 2005 in Dover, PA, aggressively sought to require that creationism be taught in its public schools?

I found that indeed they are. And so, wondering further, I sought to learn what else the Center, established in 1995 as the Christian alternative to the ACLU by Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza, has been up to, who its leaders are; and, since they invoke Sir Thomas in their very name, what might he have thought about the work the Center engages in in his memory.

There is of course no way to know, since he lived between 1478 and 1535. But the question remains curious.

Recall that More was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important counsellor to Henry VIII and for three years toward the end of his life served as England's Lord Chancellor. He is recognized as a saint within the Catholic Church and was an opponent of the Protestant Reformation and in particular of Martin Luther.

He is best known for courageously opposing Henry VIII's leaving the Catholic Church in order to marry Catherine of Aragon and as a result More was confined to the Tower of London, tried for treason, and beheaded.

The Center, named for him, has been one of the most active groups in America, pursuing an ultra-conservative agenda by engaging in litigation that, according to its Website, focuses on "religious freedom," "family values," "the sanctity of life," and perplexingly, "national defense." Thus it is understandable that they would press legal challenges to abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and pornography. But American troops accused of killing Iraqi civilians and Obamacare??

As a humanist, Sir Thomas, who was interested in the early manifestations of what ultimately became the "new science," would undoubtedly have agreed with the judge in the Dover case who in a 139 page opinion found that "intelligent design" is not science but essentially religious in nature, and consequently inappropriate for inclusion in public school biology classes.

And anyone familiar with More's novel Utopia, would know that he would likely be uncomfortable with many of the More Center's other views. I suspect, even its challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

For in Utopia, a fictional traveller, Raphael Hythlodeaus describes the political arrangements of the imaginary island country of Utopia, a Greek pun meaning "no place." It is a place that More contrasts with the internal struggles tearing at the social fabric of then existing European states, an island nation with communal ownership of land, where private property does not exist, and men and women are educated alike. It is also a place where there is almost complete religious toleration.

Thomas More, even more than the More Center alleges is true for Obama, is an early version of a socialist and, as such, I feel certain, would be an enthusiastic supporter of Obamacare. Actually, as an advocate of communal property, there might even be no need for a "commerce clause" in his Utopia's constitution; and thus I suspect he would have been a strong advocate for a single-payer option for those without health care. In other words, for true socialized medicne of the sort we find in Canada and all developed countries.

Too bad the folks at the Thomas More Law Center don't know their Thomas More.