Yesterday, the University of Notre Dame re-filed its lawsuit challenging the contraception mandate “accommodation” offered to religious institutions by the Department of Health and Human Services. Notre Dame had filed suit before, but that suit was dismissed as the Administration had announced plans to adopt an accommodation for objecting religious institutions. The WSJ reports on […]
Archive | Health Care
Upcoming Event on A Conspiracy Against Obamacare
Co-bloggers Randy Barnett, Orin Kerr, and I will be speaking at an upcoming event at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC on our recently published book A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case, which details ours and the VC’s role in developing the arguments in the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision […]
Another ObamaCare Delay: SHOP Exchange Enrollment
Politico reports: The Obama administration today announced a one year delay of online enrollment for small businesses looking to purchase health coverage through federal Obamacare exchanges, another high-profile setback for HealthCare.gov. It’s the second delay for online small business enrollment, which the administration had said would begin this month. . . . The administration originally […]
Supreme Court to Hear Two Contraception Mandate Cases
This morning the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases in which for-profit corporations are challenging the so-called “contraception mandate” under which employer-provided group health insurance plans are required to fully cover all FDA approved forms of contraception and sterilization. The two cases accepted for review are Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., in which […]
The Obamacare Fix’s Legality, State Law and Standing
By Eugene Kontorovich on November 23, 2013 12:33 pm in Constitutional Law, Federal Jurisdiction, Health Care, Standing, State Constitutional Law
I have a piece in POLITICO discussing the constitutional problems with the ObamaCare fix, which have been previewed here before. One aspect is whether state officials can ignore ObamaCare and instead apply “The Fix.” Regardless of the discretion President Obama has, state officials do not have enforcement discretion over federal law. It is just supreme, […]
Another Illegal ObamaCare Fix?
With Healthcare.gov still not working the way it is supposed to — and large portions of the “back office” functions yet to be completed — the Administration is preparing another fix: Allowing consumers to purchase qualified insurance plans directly from insurers with the benefit of the subsidies that are only supposed to be available through […]
More on the Legality of the Latest ObamaCare Fix
By Jonathan H. Adler on November 18, 2013 11:52 pm in Administrative Law, Health Care, Insurance Exchanges
Last Thursday, the President announced a change in Administration policy designed to ensure that those who like their health insurance plans will be able to keep them for at least one more year, despite the legal requirements of the PPACA and its implementing regulations. On Friday, I explained the President lacks the authority to waive […]
The Legality of the Latest ObamaCare Fix
Yesterday, the President announced a purported fix to the problem that, under the PPACA, insurance companies are not allowed to renew policies that fail to comply with PPACA requirements, even if consumers like their existing plans. This was not an accident. Forcing all health insurance policies to comply with federal minimum requirements was a key […]
The Constitutionality of the ObamaCare “Fix”
By Eugene Kontorovich on November 14, 2013 1:25 pm in Congress, Constitutional Law, Executive Branch, Health Care, Obama, Separation of Powers, Uncategorized
President Obama in his speech on “fixing” the Affordable Care Act today did not specify what statutory authority, if any, he thinks authorizes him to make such dictats. Given the gargantuan length of the ObamaCare statute, he might still be looking. Press reports say the President is claiming a broad “enforcement discretion.” It is true […]
The Impact of the Volokh Conspiracy on the Obamacare Litigation
By Ilya Somin on November 13, 2013 11:10 am in Blogosphere, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate
Part of my concluding essay in my new book, A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case (coauthored with VC co-bloggers Randy Barnett, Jonathan Adler, David Bernstein, Orin Kerr, and David Kopel) deals with the impact of the VC and the blogosphere on the case. Here is an excerpt: What role […]
Upcoming Josh Blackman Presentation on his book Unprecedented at George Mason University School of Law
This Wednesday from 5 to 6 PM, South Texas College of Law Professor Josh Blackman will be doing a presentation on his book Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare at George Mason University School of Law. In addition to being a highly successful young legal academic, Josh is also a prominent blogger, and a GMUSL […]
A Poor Rationale for Banning Organ Markets
At National Review, Wesley Smith has a post criticizing a Canadian proposal to pay kidney donors. He supports banning such payments because they would “exploit” the poor: The drive to turn living human bodies of the poor and destitute into natural resources for the well off continues…. If organs can be purchased like a steak […]
The American Voter as “Flounder” (Warning: Profanity in Video)
LA Times: “All we’ve been hearing the last three years is if you like your policy you can keep it,” said Deborah Cavallaro, a real estate agent in Westchester. “I’m infuriated because I was lied to.” I think this one may go down in history with “Read my lips… No New Taxes.”
Judge Rejects DoJ Motion to Dismiss Second Suit Against IRS Tax Credit Rule
This morning, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman denied the federal government’s motion to dismiss in Halbig v. Sebelius, a suit challenging the legality of an IRS rule authorizing tax credits for the purchase of health insurance on federally run exchanges. This suit is one of four challenging the IRS rule. With today’s ruling, the […]
The Shutdown and the Legal Future of Obamacare (Updated)
UPDATE BELOW Here’s an angle on the late government shutdown that I haven’t seen anywhere else: it was crucial to the potential success of the ongoing lawsuits over Obamacare. I haven’t followed the lawsuits all that carefully, but I think at least the challenge to the subsidies for federal exchanges is quite serious, legally speaking. […]