The Stanford Law Review Online has just published an Essay by Eric Segall and Aaron E. Carroll entitled Health Care and Constitutional Chaos: Why the Supreme Court Should Uphold the Affordable Care Act. Professor Segall and Dr. Carroll explore the constitutional and practical arguments for upholding the ACA:
The Supreme Court’s decision on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will likely be handed down on the last day of this year’s term. If the Court finds that the ACA—either in whole or in part—violates the Constitution, the health care industry will be shaken to its core. And, no matter what legal justification the Court uses to invalidate the ACA, the structure of constitutional law will be severely undercut. The resulting medical and legal chaos will be expensive, divisive, and completely unnecessary. Nothing in the text, history or structure of the Constitution warrants the Court overturning Congress’s effort to address our national health care problems.
They conclude:
The leading academic proponent of a decision overturning the ACA has conceded that the law is an attempt to “transform a sixth of the national economy.” Whatever can be said about that economic plan as a policy matter, there can be no question that (1) it is a regulation of commerce among the states; and (2) there is no textual or precedential constitutional principle that suggests Congress can’t use all reasonable tools to regulate that commerce, including the use of an individual mandate.
Read the full article, Health Care and Constitutional Chaos: Why the Supreme Court Should Uphold the Affordable Care Act by Eric Segall and Aaron E. Carroll, at the Stanford Law Review Online.