As the House prepares for Wednesday's vote to repeal the Democrats' health care law, Republicans say it marks more than a shot at a controversial Obama policy — they argue it is the first step toward making Congress relevant in debates over the Constitution.

Following the House GOP's new rules, Majority Leader Eric Cantor submitted along with the repeal bill a little-noticed but far-reaching statement of constitutional authority that casts the effort in terms of reclaiming congressional prerogatives and the duty of each branch of government to police itself and "ensure that all their actions are constitutional."

While occasionally cloaked in legalese and arcane historical debates, their underlying message is this: The Supreme Court is not the only referee on the field when it comes to determining what's constitutional and what's not.

Sarah Palin made a call to conscious Wednesday for those who would manufacture "a blood libel" for last weekend's Arizona shooting, saying "acts of monstrous brutality ... begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively" with Americans exercising their constitutional freedoms.

The former Republican vice-presidential candidate, the target of many pontificators ascribing motive to gunman Jared Lee Loughner, charged in the Tucson attack that killed six and injured 14 others, had been silent since shortly after the Saturday shooting when she issued a two-line statement offering her prayers for the families and victims.

But Palin's name -- and those of others, including Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle -- had been central in the early accusations over what spurred the shooting.

Republicans in the House came to power vowing to govern by the book -- or in the case of the Constitution, by the parchment.

And partly as a nod to Republican representatives elected as part of the conservative Tea Party movement, one of the first acts of the newly GOP-controlled House will be to read that founding document aloud on Thursday.

Though it has been inserted as text into the Congressional Record before, the supreme law of the land has never been read aloud before in the body known as "the People's House"...

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia frequently talks about his views on abortion and the high court case that allowed for unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy for any reason.

As the nation looks to mark the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade later this month and 53 million abortions it has ushered in, Scalia said in a new interview that the case is an “absurdity.”

“You want a right to abortion? There’s nothing in the Constitution about that. But that doesn’t mean you cannot prohibit it,” he said in an interview with California Lawyer...

The Constitution frequently gets lip service in Congress, but House Republicans next year will make sure it gets a lot more than that - the new rules the incoming majority party proposed this week call for a full reading of the country's founding document on the floor of the House on Jan. 6.

The goal, backers said, is to underscore the limited-government rules the Founders imposed on Congress - and to try to bring some of those principles back into everyday legislating.

"It stems from the debate that we've had for the last two years about things like the exercise of authority in a whole host of different areas by the EPA, we've had this debate in relation to the health care bill, the cap-and-trade legislation," said Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, who proposed the reading. "This Congress has been very aggressive in expanding the power of the federal government, and there's been a big backlash to that"...

Environmentalists hate sprawl -- except when it comes to the size of their expansive pet legislation on Capitol Hill.

In a last-ditch lame duck push, eco-lobbyists have been furiously pressuring Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to pass a monstrous 327-page omnibus government lands bill crammed with more than 120 separate measures to lock up vast swaths of wilderness areas. Despite the time crunch, Senate Democrats in search of 60 votes are working behind the scenes to buy off green Republicans. House Democrats would then need a two-thirds majority to fast-track the bill to the White House before the GOP takes over on January 5.

Yes, the hurdles are high. But with Reid and company now vowing to work straight through Christmas into the new year (when politicians know Americans are preoccupied with the holidays), anything is possible. The Constitution is no obstacle to these power grabbers. Neither is a ticking clock...

(CNSNews.com) – Months before the $1-trillion health care overhaul legislation passed, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed the possibility of a constitutional challenge.

“I won't be confused as a constitutional scholar, but I don't believe there's a lot of -- I don't believe there's a lot of case law that would demonstrate the veracity of what they're commentating on,” Gibbs told CNSNews.com in October 2009, when he was asked if the health care bill was constitutional.

Today, there is case law...

Responding to today’s ruling from a federal judge declaring the individual mandate portion of the abortion-funding ObamaCare law unconstitutional, top Republican lawmakers are pushing for a repeal of the entire law.

Speaker-elect John Boehner commented on the decision, calling for a repeal and saying states should repudiate ObamaCare now that it has been declared unconstitutional:

Today’s decision is an encouraging sign for families and small business owners who have revolted against President Obama’s job-killing health care law and called for its repeal...

A legal group that promotes religious freedom and freedom of speech says today's "sound decision" out of Virginia is a serious blow to ObamaCare.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), tells OneNewsNow the state of Virginia's legal challenge to the healthcare reform law, which called into question the federal government's interpretation of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, is the first to see success.

"The federal government would state that you must buy health insurance, that if you don't buy it from a private party...you'll be penalized and have to pay a penalty as part of your taxes," Sekulow explains about the controversial measure. But "the district judge here, a George W. Bush appointee to the eastern district of Virginia, said, 'No -- the federal government cannot require citizens to purchase something from a private company under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution'"...

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) would not say what part of the Constitution grants Congress the power to force every American to buy health insurance--as all of the health care overhaul bills currently do.

Leahy, whose committee is responsible for vetting Supreme Court nominees, was asked by CNSNews.com where in the Constitution Congress is specifically granted the authority to require that every American purchase health insurance. Leahy answered by saying that “nobody questions” Congress’ authority for such an action.

CNSNews.com: "Where, in your opinion, does the Constitution give specific authority for Congress to give an individual mandate for health insurance?"...