Casting an unmistakable and perhaps permanent pockmark on the face of the Obama administration, a federal judge in Virginia ruled Monday that a major component of the new health care reform law is unconstitutional.

Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled Monday for the state's claim that the requirement for people to purchase health care exceeds the power of Congress under the Constitution's Commerce Clause or under the General Welfare Clause.

"It is not the effect on individuals that is presently at issue -- it is the authority of Congress to compel anyone to purchase health insurance," wrote Hudson, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush...

A Washington-based organization is threatening to sue metro Atlanta school boards for using church facilities to host their graduation ceremonies, but one conservative group maintains the schools are not in violation of the Constitution.

In response to the threatening letters Americans United for Separation of Church and State has sent to Atlanta-area school boards, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel decides the organization is misrepresenting the Constitution. He points out that schools do have the right to choose graduation venues, even if they include religious facilities.

"There is no constitutional problem with regards to having a public school graduation at a church facility, as long as it pays just like anybody else," he explains. "Obviously, [a school] can get better facilities at a lower cost if it does so"...

It's a "victory for plain old common sense," says a legal group in describing a court decision to keep the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The case before the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would have stopped recitation of the Pledge in New Hampshire's schools. But Eric Rassbach with The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty tells OneNewsNow the court gave a solid ruling late last week.

"They rejected what is the latest in a series of attacks on the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance -- and specifically [targeting] the words 'under God,'" the attorney explains...

Virginia Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli told CNSNews.com that the lawsuit his state has filed against the health-care reform law signed by President Barack Obama in March is about preserving the liberty of individual Americans against a federal government that is over-reaching its legitimate constitutional authority.

“One thing people need to realize about this case: It’s not about health insurance, it’s about liberty,” Cuccinelli said in an “Online With Terry Jeffrey” interview. “That’s what this case is about. It’s about the outer limits of federal power under the Constitution. You can take health insurance out of this case and you can put Chevy Equinoxes in, and it’s the same case. And, look, I own a Chevy Equinox, but you don’t want the federal government ordering you to buy a Chevy Equinox”...

The leader of the Republicans in the Senate is filing a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the multistate lawsuit that has been filed against the abortion-funding ObamaCare health care law.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joins the states in arguing that the ObamaCare law is unconstitutional because it requires Americans to purchase health insurance who may not want to do so. The pro-life community has expressed concerns that the bill allows for abortion funding using taxpayer funds and doesn’t protect those Americans who want to opt out.

The McConnell brief, according to Politico, argues the mandatory purchase requirement “dramatically oversteps the bounds of the Commerce [Clause] which has always been understood as a power to regulate, and not to compel, economic activity”...

Detroit (AP) - A federal judge on Thursday upheld the authority of the federal government to require everyone to have health insurance, dealing a setback to groups seeking to block the new national health care plan.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed in Michigan by a Christian legal group and four people who claimed lawmakers exceeded their power under the Constitution's commerce clause, which authorizes Congress to regulate trade.

But Judge George Caram Steeh in Detroit said the mandate to get insurance by 2014 and the financial penalty for skipping coverage are legal. He said Congress was trying to lower the overall cost of insurance by requiring participation...

(CNSNews.com) - A Republican congressman says all bills introduced in Congress should include a statement setting forth the specific constitutional authority under which a law is being enacted.

Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) says his Enumerated Powers Act will force Congress to re-examine the role of the national government and curb its "ever-expanding reach."

"For too long, the federal government has operated without Constitutional restraint, creating ineffective and costly programs and massive deficits year after year," Shadegg writes on AmericaSpeakingOut, a Republican Web site that seeks ideas from the American people...

A federal court is pondering the constitutionality of the healthcare reform act in a lawsuit that was filed moments after the bill was signed into law on March 23, 2010.

The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) filed the lawsuit challenging the individual mandate section of ObamaCare legislation. Federal District Court Judge George C. Steeh agrees "that a prompt resolution of the constitutional issue would serve the public interest."

"The court agreed to consolidate our hearing for a plenary injunction with a ruling on the merits of whether or not Congress has the authority under the Commerce Clause to force private citizens to engage in a commercial transaction -- that being the purchase of healthcare -- under penalty of law," reports Robert Muise, the TMLC attorney who argued the case...

As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to vote on Elena Kagan's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, a national Christian advocacy group has mounted a campaign to oppose her.

The Christian Coalition of America has issued an action alert, calling on Americans concerned with Kagan's views on issues that impact family values to sign a petition to say no to her nomination. Michele Combs, spokesperson for the Christian Coalition, tells OneNewsNow that believers should be concerned about the nominee's record.

"We just think that a nominee and a Supreme Court justice will be there for a very long time, and we believe that person needs to be unbiased, especially on current policy, and to uphold the Constitution -- and that's what we would like," Combs explains.

The Supreme Court on Monday extended the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms to the states in the second major victory for gun rights supporters in as many years.

The justices two years ago, by a 5-4 majority in the 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller case, recognized the right for Washington, D.C., residents to register handguns and keep them in their homes. But because of the District's status as a federal enclave, the decision did not apply to states and localities across the country.

The same five justices who formed the majority on that decision were also the majority of Monday's 5-4 decision, which concluded that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment "incorporates" Second Amendment protections not only against the federal government but also against states and localities...