Today is the first anniversary of NFIB v. Sebelius, the Supreme Court’s controversial decision in the Obamacare case. It is still too soon for us to fully appreciate the long-term impact of the ruling. We are also still far from reaching any kind of consensus about the correctness of the Court’s decision. For the moment, […]
Archive | Taxing and Spending Clause
Turning Federalism Right-Side Up – My Review of Michael Greve’s The Upside-Down Constitution
By Ilya Somin on December 11, 2012 10:45 am in Commerce Clause, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Federalism, Necessary and Proper, Taxing and Spending Clause
My review of Michael Greve’s important new book, The Upside-Down Constitution is about to be published in Constitutional Commentary, and is now available on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Michael Greve’s The Upside-Down Constitution is one of the most important works on constitutional federalism in years. It is the best exposition to date of the […]
The Bar Review version of NFIB v. Sebelius
By David Kopel on July 10, 2012 2:52 pm in Commerce Clause, Constitutional Law, Individual Mandate, Originalism, Supreme Court, Taxing and Spending Clause
Over at Scotusblog, I present the legal rules of NFIB v. Sebelius, as they might appear in a bar review outline, or in a student study aid for a Constitutional Law I class.
Chief Justice Roberts and the window tax
By David Kopel on July 9, 2012 2:27 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Originalism, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
In NFIB v. Sebelius, Chief Justice Roberts imagined a hypothetical federal tax on windows, in order to bolster his point that the Court should treat the individual mandate as a “tax,” even though the Obamacare statute calls it a “penalty.” Suppose Congress enacted a statute providing that every taxpayer who owns a house without energy […]
Of Silver Linings and Clouds
By Ilya Somin on June 29, 2012 10:07 pm in Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
Today’s USA Today quotes me on the individual mandate decision as follows: “You can look for silver linings in the cloud, but it’s still a cloud,” said George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin, who wrote a brief opposing the health law. He said the decision offers Congress a road map to enact similar laws […]
Next step: Repeal the individual mandate because it is unconstitutional
By David Kopel on June 29, 2012 7:30 pm in Congress, Constitutional History, Equal Protection, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper, Politics, Popular Constitutionalism, Presidency, Separation of Powers, Supreme Court, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause, Uncategorized
McCulloch v. Maryland had a very good day at the Supreme Court yesterday, with NFIB relying on and applying McCulloch‘s rules for when an enactment violates the Necessary and Proper Clause. What happened after the McCulloch decision also shows the next steps in battle over the individual mandate, as I suggest in an essay this morning […]
Neal Katyal on the Federal Government’s “Pyrrhic Victory” in the Health Care Decisions
By Ilya Somin on June 29, 2012 6:31 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
Georgetown law professor Neal Katyal is a highly respected liberal constitutional law scholar. He also argued several of the individual mandate cases for the Obama administration in the lower courts. In this recent New York Times op ed, he suggests that the result may well have been a “Pyrrhic victory” for federal power: The obvious […]
Is the individual mandate a “tax” according to the original meaning?
By David Kopel on June 29, 2012 6:30 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Individual Mandate, Originalism, Supreme Court, Taxing and Spending Clause
Absolutely not. Rob Natelson explains why in this 27 minute podcast from iVoices.org.
NFIB as Marbury
By David Kopel on June 29, 2012 6:25 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Federalism, Individual Mandate, Politics, Spending Clause, Supreme Court, Taxing and Spending Clause, Unconstitutional Conditions
My article yesterday for Scotusblog discussed the tremendous importance of the Court’s 7-2 use of the non-coercion rule to limit Spending Clause violations of State sovereignty and independence. The rule has been around ever since Steward Machine Company v. Davis (1937), but NFIB v. Sebelius is the first decision by any federal court to find that […]
Do the Court’s Commerce Clause and Necessary and Proper Clause Rulings in the Individual Mandate Case Matter?
By Ilya Somin on June 29, 2012 2:44 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
As I pointed out yesterday, five justices, including Chief Justice Roberts, accepted all the plaintiffs’ major arguments against the individual mandate with respect to the Commerce and Necessary and Proper Clauses. But how much does that conclusion actually matter? My tentative view is that it will have little immediate effect, but may well be significant […]
Where Richard Friedman and I Agree
By Ilya Somin on June 28, 2012 11:35 pm in Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
Note the close parallels between my statements in this CBS News report and on the mandate decision, and those of University of Michigan law professor Richard Friedman, a well-known liberal legal scholar. It’s almost as if we coordinated our remarks in advance. But in truth I had no idea what he said until I read […]
Thoughts on the Medicaid Spending Clause Decision
While the 26 state plaintiffs ultimately lost the case challenging the constitutionality of the individual mandate, they partially prevailed on the other federalism case decided today: the challenge to provisions of the Affordable Care Act requiring states to massively expand Medicaid coverage or lose all of their federal Medicaid funds. The Supreme Court ruled that […]
My SCOTUSblog Discussion of the Individual Mandate Decision
By Ilya Somin on June 28, 2012 7:08 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
SCOTUSblog has just posted a detailed analysis of today’s decision that I did for them. It’s much more thorough than anything I have been able to put up elsewhere. Here is an excerpt: Today’s 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding the individual health insurance mandate is an extremely frustrating result for those of us who argued […]
The Tax Issue is Not Just a Technicality
By Ilya Somin on June 28, 2012 6:09 pm in Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
Some, including co-blogger Orin Kerr, have argued that today’s ruling that the individual mandate is a tax rests on a mere technicality. The mandate could have been a tax if only Congress had labeled it as such or structured it slightly differently, and so it makes sense for the Court to assume that it is […]
The Other Big Health Care Case Before the Supreme Court
With all the hoopla surrounding the individual mandate case, the media and most commentators have often given short shrift to the other big health care case the Supreme Court is about to decide: the constitutionality of the Obamacare’s massive expansion of Medicaid. Constitutional law scholar David Oedel recently posted this interesting article on the subject, […]