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, […]
Tag Archives | Obamacare
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 Inconsistency Between the Constitutional Arguments for the Mandate and Medicaid in the ACA
By Eugene Kontorovich on March 29, 2012 6:20 pm in Constitutional Law, Economy, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Supreme Court
Now that Eugene has given me the electronic keys to this Conspiracy, I could not resist getting involved in the now-legendary discussion of the ACA… There is a serious inconsistency between the government’s arguments for the mandate and for the Medicaid expansion. In a nutshell, these arguments make opposite assumptions about the effect of financial […]
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 […]
Destroying the Constitution’s Structure is not Constitutional
By David Kopel on April 2, 2010 3:38 am in Constitutional History, Constitutional Theory, Federalism, Fourteenth Amendment, Health Care, Militia, Taxes
Thus far, the argument among law professors over the constitutionality of Obamacare has been well represented by scholars who have made pro and con arguments over particular clauses in the constitution, such as the interstate commerce clause, or the tax power. In this post, I would like to examine an insight by Jonathan Turley, which […]
The Stamp Act
Received the Royal Assent and thereby became law on this day, in 1765. A spontaneous citizen movement, reinforced by state governments carrying out their duties to protect the constitutional rights and liberties of their citizens, mobilized to oppose the Stamp Act. They were told by their betters that repeal would never take place, and that […]