Many years ago when I was taking piano lessons, I had the unfortunate habit of leaving some of the notes out of my chords. Given how agitated it made my piano teacher, my lessons should have been more expensive, the better to cover the drugs (or gin) it took to calm him down. Yet time after time, until I finally "got" it, he would patiently explain that when you only play some of the notes, you are playing a different song altogether.
Once Judge Roger Vinson tossed out the entirety of PPACA, states began tripping all over themselves to cease implementation. In addition to those actions, 13 states are considering nullification bills that would make the law null and void. Kudos to the states for finally asserting the sovereignty they had (and never relinquished) when they signed on to the contract known as the Declaration of Independence.
Opponents of these nullification actions are quick to cite Article VI, Clause 2 — the so-called "supremacy clause" of the Constitution — as a kind of silver bullet that should stop the states with a single shot. They argue that the article construes any law passed by Congress as "the supreme law of the land."
Unfortunately, this rendering of Article VI has much in common with my early piano playing: there are some missing notes that make all the difference in the world. The actual wording is (in part), "This Constitution and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof (emphasis added)… shall be the supreme Law of the Land."
