What the Supreme Court Obamacare Ruling Means for the Drinking Age

Newsweek/Daily Beast ^ | Jun 29, 2012 | Caitlin Dickson

[george76]

The Supreme Court justices’ stance on President Obama’s Medicaid expansion provision could be good news for states that want to lower their drinking ages from the federally mandated 21.

...

The Supreme Court ruled that threatening to take away a state’s Medicaid funding unless the state does what the federal government wants is “unconstitutionally coercive” and declared it invalid. Because any given part of a Supreme Court decision can set a precedent for future laws and can even invalidate an established law if it is challenged using the Supreme Court’s new argument, the Medicaid decision could affect the National Minimum Drinking Age Act.

In 1984 Congress passed the law that made it illegal for anyone in the United States under the age of 21 to purchase or publicly possess alcohol. While drinking laws are and always have been a states issue, the federal government was able to enforce the minimum age by making it a part of the Federal Aid Highway Act

[Gilbo_3]

only an overbearing and abusive government could rationalize an 'adult' *crime* of posessing/drinking as a 'minor'...the jail/fines are the big boy house, not juvie...

much less the 26 yr old 'child' clause of deathcare...

[bill1952]

...If you can vote and serve our country in the military at 18, you should be able to get an alcoholic drink

You know I agree.
Its just that I don’t agree with teenagers drinking OR serving in the military - a teen not voting or drinking doesn’t bother me at all, but the hypocrisy that you pointed out is certainly valid.

Except in times of war the age for full time Service in the Military should really be 21.
Perhaps some conditional or reserve service and training in support roles could be provided for between 18 - 21.

[kabar]

Why 21 instead of 18?

Here is a list of countries and their enlistment ages. The only country with 21 or higher is Afghanistan (22).

[redpoll]

I remember the governor of Connecticut, a handsome woman named Ella Grasso, who was one of the last (perhaps the last) holdout against the feds forcing the state to increase the drinking age. She said that someone coming home from the military deserved a cold beer. Eventually, the state folded.

Just part of the incremental growth of the federal government. It’s actually one of the incidents that had led me to conservatism and Constitutionalism; I guess taking beer away from a 19-year-old can do that.