The full set of opinions, with the syllabus, total 193 pages. I’m not sure if that’s a record, but it’s up there. The primary dissent is a joint dissent by all four dissenting justices. This is unusual. Their dissent rejects both the individual mandate and the Medicaid expansion. Because these two provisions are central to […]
Archive | Individual Mandate
The Mandate Upheld as a Tax
We do not yet have the mandate opinion (or at least I don’t). But apparently it was upheld on a 5-4 vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the four liberal justices. Much more surprisingly, it was apparently upheld on the grounds that it is a tax. This was the least likely basis for a […]
Final Thoughts on the Eve of the Individual Mandate Decision
Over the last year, I have written an academic article, several amicus briefs, and countless blog posts and op eds about the individual mandate case. Whether I said anything useful or not is for others to judge. But, as a constitutional federalism scholar and one who had long argued for the need to enforce constraints […]
Win or Lose, My Thanks
On the eve of the historic Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the individual insurance mandate, I don’t know what the outcome will be any more than anyone else. I have never made a prediction and won’t start now. From the beginning, I always insisted that the challenge was serious, but also an uphill […]
David Rivkin – Opposing the Mandate Before It Was Cool
The WSJ has republished an op-ed opposing an individual mandate to purchase health insurance by David Rivkin from September 29, 1993. This op-ed was published challenging the constitutional basis of both the Clinton health care plan and the alternative pushed by some Republicans at the time that featured an individual mandate. Here is an excerpt: […]
Law Professors Obsessing Over the Individual Mandate
The Noncuratlex blog recently did a post making fun of constitutional law professors’ obsession with the individual mandate case. It includes shoutouts to the VC, co-blogger Randy Barnett, Laurence Tribe, and Metta World Peace: RENO, NEVADA (Press International), June 25, 2012: The husbands and wives of the nation’s estimated 543 married Constitutional Law professors collectively […]
Blogging on the Individual Mandate Decision at SCOTUSblog
This is just to let readers know that, in addition to blogging about the expected individual mandate decision here at the VC, I will also be blogging about it at SCOTUSblog. I will be joining a large group of legal scholars on both sides of the issue there, including co-bloggers Jonathan Adler, Randy Barnett, David […]
Ezra Klein on “Motivated Reasoning” and the Struggle Over the Individual Mandate
In a widely read recent New Yorker article, Ezra Klein argues that both the rise of conservative opposition to the individual mandate and the greater than expected success of the constitutional challenges to the law is largely a result of “motivated reasoning”: On March 23, 2010, the day that President Obama signed the Affordable Care […]
Recent Poll of Supreme Court Experts Finds that Most Expect the Court to Strike Down the Individual Mandate
A June poll of Supreme Court experts finds that, on average, they predict a 57% chance that the Court will strike down the individual mandate: A new insider survey of 58 legal experts conducted after the oral arguments concluded found that most predict that the court will strike down the so-called individual mandate, a central […]
How Much Does the Individual Mandate Case Matter?
Co-blogger Orin Kerr asks an important question. How much effect will the individual mandate decision really have? To some extent, we can’t really know. It depends in part on the Supreme Court’s reasoning in upholding or striking down the mandate, and also on future political developments, including who gets to make the next several appointments […]
How Much Will the Ruling in the Health Care Case Matter?
The Supreme Court will hand down its decision in the Affordable Care Act case in a few days, and there’s lots of apocalyptic rhetoric from both sides about what a decision affirming or reversing might mean for the law and for the Supreme Court. I agree that the decision is likely to be hugely important. […]
Health Care Cases Update
I am right now following the Supreme Court’s announcement of the opinions to be issued today. If the health care cases are among those that come out, I will post an analysis as quickly as possible. Stay tuned…. UPDATE: The Court has finished announcing opinions, and the health care cases were not among them. Neither […]
The Broccoli Argument Isn’t About Broccoli
Yesterday’s New York Times has an interesting article about how the broccoli mandate analogy came to play a major role in the cases challenging the constitutionality of the Obamacare individual health insurance mandate. It traces the analogy back to various libertarian and conservative sources and suggests that broccoli is a key reason why the mandate […]
New Poll Showing that 68 Percent of the Public Want the Court to Strike Down the Individual Mandate
As co-blogger Jonathan Adler points out, a new New York Times-CBS poll shows that 68% of the public want the Supreme Court to rule that the individual health insurance mandate is unconstitutional, while 41% want it to invalidate the entire Obama health care reform law. Only 24% want the mandate upheld. Even a slight 48-42 […]
NYT/CBS Poll: Over Two-Thirds Want Mandate Struck Down
The flurry of commentary suggesting the Supreme Court would provoke a popular backlash were it to strike down the individual mandate does not appear to have affected the populace. In a new NYT/CBS poll over two-thirds of respondents said they wanted some or all of the health care reform law struck down. Specifically, 41 percent […]