This week Scotusblog is running a series of essays, “The Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.” Contributors so far are Dawn Johnson (Indiana U.), Bradley Joondeph (Santa Clara U., and manager of a very useful blog on the ACA litigation), Bob Levy (Cato), Charles Fried (Harvard), and me. There are many more essays still to […]
Archive | Taxing and Spending Clause
My Jurist Op Ed on the Sixth Circuit Decision Upholding the Individual Mandate
By Ilya Somin on July 1, 2011 3:58 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Taxing and Spending Clause
The Jurist has just published an op ed I wrote criticizing the recent Sixth Circuit decision upholding the individual mandate: This week, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that the individual mandate of federal health care reform is constitutional. This is undeniably a setback for mandate opponents…. Before this decision, judges […]
Today’s Sixth Circuit Decision Upholding the Individual Mandate
By Ilya Somin on June 29, 2011 6:52 pm in Commerce Clause, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
Today’s 2-1 Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the constitutionality of the individual mandate is undeniably a setback for mandate opponents. Up until now, judges’ votes in the mandate cases had split along ideological and partisan lines. Every conservative Republican judge had voted to strike it down, while every liberal Democrat voted to uphold […]
Interview with Cato’s Ilya Shapiro on the legal challenges to the new federal health control law
By David Kopel on April 20, 2011 6:18 pm in Commerce Clause, Constitutional Law, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Taxing and Spending Clause
Ilya Shapiro is senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review. On Monday, I interviewed him for 39 minutes about Cato’s litigation program on constitutional issues, his traveling the country during the last year to debate the health control law, and the constitutional issues involved in […]
Akhil Amar’s Defense of the Individual Mandate
By Ilya Somin on February 7, 2011 12:11 am in Commerce Clause, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Taxing and Spending Clause
Yale law professor Akhil Amar is one of the truly great constitutional law scholars of his generation, and I benefited enormously from taking his classes when I was in law school. Unfortunately, his recent LA Times article defending the constitutionality of the Obamacare individual mandate is not an example of his better work. I was […]
Today’s Florida District Court Ruling Striking Down the Obamacare Individual Mandate
By Ilya Somin on January 31, 2011 8:01 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper, Taxing and Spending Clause
Today’s Florida district court ruling that the individual mandate is unconstitutional is by far the best court opinion on this issue so far. Judge Roger Vinson provides a thorough and impressive analysis of the federal government’s arguments claiming that the mandate is authorized by the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause, and explains […]
Our Amicus Brief in the Thomas More Law Center Individual Mandate Case
By Ilya Somin on December 30, 2010 10:21 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
For those who may be interested, I have written an amicus brief in Thomas More Law Center v. Obama, one of the cases challenging the constitutionality of the Obama health care bill’s individual mandate. I wrote the brief on behalf of the Washington Legal Foundation and twelve members of the House of Representatives. It is […]
Thoughts on Today’s Ruling Striking Down the Individual Health Insurance Mandate
By Ilya Somin on December 13, 2010 11:47 pm in Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper, Taxing and Spending Clause
Here are a few thoughts on today’s federal district court ruling striking down the constitutionality of the Obamacare individual mandate. In my view, the strongest parts of Judge Henry Hudson’s opinion are those where he rejects the federal government’s arguments under the Commerce Clause and the Tax Clause. On the Commerce Clause, federal government lawyers […]
New York Times Room for Debate Blog Forum on Today’s Individual Mandate Decision
By Ilya Somin on December 13, 2010 9:50 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Sports and Games, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
The New York Times Room for Debate blog has posted a forum where various scholars weigh in on today’s district court decision striking down the individual mandate. It includes contributions by co-blogger Randy Barnett and myself. My piece briefly discusses the Commerce Clause and Tax Clause aspects of the ruling: Judge Henry Hudson’s decision today […]
District Court Upholds Individual Mandate Against Challenge Filed by Liberty University
By Ilya Somin on December 1, 2010 10:45 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Spending Clause, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
Yesterday, federal district Judge Norman Moon of the Western District of Virginia upheld the Obamacare individual mandate against a constitutional challenged filed by Liberty University and several private plaintiffs. For the most part, Judge Moon’s reasoning closely follows that of Michigan district Judge George Caram Steeh in the recent Thomas More Law Center decision. Both […]
My Richmond Times-Dispatch Op Ed on the Obama Health Care Plan Individual Mandate Litigation
By Ilya Somin on November 8, 2010 2:34 am in Commerce Clause, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper, Spending Clause, Taxing and Spending Clause
Yesterday, I published an op ed on the state of the individual mandate litigation in the Richmond Times-Dispatch: When 21 states and several private groups initiated lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Obama health care law earlier this year, critics denounced the suits as frivolous political grandstanding. But it is increasingly clear that the plaintiffs […]
The Individual Mandate and the Taxing Power
My colleague Erik Jensen, who has forgotten more about the Taxing Power than I’ll ever know, has a new paper on whether the individual mandate is a “tax” for constitutional purposes. Here’s the abstract: This article, prepared for a symposium at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University, considers whether the Taxing […]
The Florida District Court Decision Rejecting the Federal Government’s Motion to Dismiss the Case Against the Individual Mandate
By Ilya Somin on October 14, 2010 5:42 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper, Spending Clause, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause
There are several interesting aspects of today’s Florida federal district court ruling rejecting the government’s motion to dismiss a challenge to the Obama health care plan’s individual mandate brought by 20 states and the National Federation of Independent Business. First, as Randy Barnett emphasizes, this ruling, like the similar Virginia decision before it, further undercuts […]
Kopel comment on states’ victory on health control lawsuit.
By David Kopel on October 14, 2010 5:06 pm in Commerce Clause, Congress, Constitutional Law, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Spending Clause, Standing, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause, Tenth Amendment
My comment on today’s decision, granting the motion to dismiss on some counts, and while allowing other counts to proceed. Like Randy’s comment, my comment is posted on the blog of the site Health Care Lawsuits, which is hosted by the Independent Women’s Forum. The court entirely rejected the administration’s claim that the penalty for disobeying […]
The Individual Health Care Mandate and Enumerated Powers – Event Audio
By David Kopel on August 7, 2010 6:07 pm in Constitutional Law, Federalism, Health Care, Necessary and Proper, Taxing and Spending Clause, Tenth Amendment
The final event at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools was a Federalist Society panel on the constitutionality of the centralized health control law. Participants were Randy Barnett (Georgetown, VC), Jack Balkin (Yale), Gillian Metzger (Columbia), and me (Denver, VC). The moderator was Bradley A. Smith (Capital). Available here. The recording is 93 minutes, although the event itself ran […]