TRENTON — Insurance fraud. Drug possession. Conspiracy to distribute a controlled dangerous substance. Those can be third-degree crimes in New Jersey. And this week a Sussex County legislator proposed adding another infraction to the list: Enforcing the federal health care law that was enacted last year. The New Jersey measure (A4551), introduced Monday by Assemblywoman Alison Little McHose (R-Sussex),...
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Assemblywoman Alison Little McHose, in this February 2011 Star-Ledger file photo, has introduced a bill that would render the federal government's health care law null and void and penalize those who enforce the law. TRENTON — Insurance fraud. Drug possession. Conspiracy to distribute a controlled dangerous substance.
Those can be third-degree crimes in New Jersey. And this week a Sussex County legislator proposed adding another infraction to the list: Enforcing the federal health care law that was enacted last year.
The New Jersey measure (A4551), introduced Monday by Assemblywoman Alison Little McHose (R-Sussex), would render the health care law "null and void" in New Jersey. And any federal employee or contractor trying to enforce it in the state would face at least a $1,000 fine and could face a prison term of up to five years, at a judge’s discretion.
State employees would have it a bit easier, with a fine of at least $500 and, at most, a prison term of two years.
McHose’s bill was copied almost verbatim from one offered on the Web site of the Tenth Amendment Center — a group that says the federal government should have very limited authority over states, and that states should be able to nullify federal laws when they feel the government has overreached.
Versions of the bill have been introduced in 12 other states and even signed into law in North Dakota — though the portions pertaining to criminal penalties were removed.
"We just want to decentralize," Michael Boldin, founder and executive director of the center, said in a telephone interview. "Whether it’s weed, health care, guns or gay marriage, we want those decisions done by communities in states."
McHose did not respond to several calls seeking comment, and instead issued a long prepared statement, large parts of which were copied directly from Boldin’s writings.
"My colleagues who introduced this legislation in other states and I are taking this step as a way to reject any potential national health care program that may be coming from Washington," McHose said. "We are doing so in response to a law that doesn’t appear to represent the interests of the people of New Jersey."
The response was swift and short.
"What kind of Lunacy?" said Frank Askin, director of the Rutgers Law School Constitutional Litigation Clinic.
Askin said a state’s attempt to nullify a federal law would violate the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. "We have something called the United States Constitution."
The notion of trying to stymy the health care law has been making the rounds in Tea Party circles for some time.
Richard Luzzi, president of the Morristown Tea Party, said the penalties were needed to give the bill some heft if signed into law, and noted that the prison time was at a judge’s discretion.
"I think it’s the only effective way that I can think of off the top of my head to enforce the legislation," he said.
But those who would help implement the law, most of which doesn’t go into effect until 2014, can relax. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) is about as opposed to McHose’s effort as you can get.
"The Speaker will be posting this bill on, let me check here, oh yes, the Twelfth of Never," said a spokesman for Assembly Democrats, Tom Hester Jr. "In other words, the speaker will not be posting it. It will never see the light of day."
Republicans nationally have attacked the health care law because it mandates that anyone not insured through a job, a government program or by other means must buy coverage. Opponents also predict the law will drive the nation further into debt, although the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has said it will reduce the deficit in the long run.
Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), the state Democratic chairman, said McHose is rehashing an issue settled in the Civil War.
"This is the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and one issue that ultimately led to the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor was the belief that states could nullify federal law," he said. "Apparently Assemblywoman McHose has either forgotten that part of history or was absent from school that day."
Susan K. Livio/The Star-Ledger contributed to this report.
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