Federal Mandates have been around over 200 years.

[Hawaii Hiker]

Not that conservatives give a shit when it doesn't suit them..

"While everyone is arguing about whether Congress can compel everyone to buy a product (such as health insurance) from a private company, few people have noticed that the first time it did so was 220 years ago. On May 8, 1792, Congress passed the Second Militia Act, which ordered every able-bodied white male citizen from 18 to 45 to buy from a private company a musket or firelock and 24 rounds of ammunition for it. The full text of the act is given here. The United States had no standing army in 1792, so Congress was thinking that if the British came back, these armed men would form the militia to defend the country".

www.electoral-vote.com

[Turbineguy]

1. Luckily back then

they did not have the modern republican party.

[JayhawkSD]

2. That law was passed but never enforced, and

more to the point, was never tested before the Supreme Court. We are not arguing whether or not it has been done, we are arguing whether or not it is valid under the constitution. That case does not prove that it is, because the Supreme Court never upheld it.

[Ikonoklast]

3. Thereby being constitutional by default.

If a law is never challenged, it is de facto constitutional until adjudicated otherwise.

[JoePhilly]

4. Bingo

Most of the folks claiming this mandate is unconstitutional rarely provide an actual precedent for making that claim.

[The Stranger]

5. What about compulsory military service and draft registration?

Was the military draft never tested Constitutionally?