Monday, July 16, 2012

Did the 'Individual Mandate' Survive?

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court's June 28 decision on ObamaCare, there've been some confusing reports in the media that the "individual mandate" survived:
On July 12 in an excerpt from a soon-to-appear article in National Review, attorneys Jonathan Adler and Nathaniel Stewart write: "The post-New Deal remnants of our original constitutional order were very much at stake in this case, and although the mandate survived, at least for today those remnants still remain."
In an article for The Daily Caller on July 11, Jim Huffman of Lewis & Clark Law School writes: "In joining the court's four liberals to uphold the constitutionality of Obamacare's individual mandate ..."
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (who brought Virginia v. Sebelius) writes: "My initial reaction when the decision was announced that the insurance mandate was upheld ..."
Business writer for The Kansas City Star Keith Chrostowski writes: "So the mandate and the act stand. Roberts seemed to think that recasting the individual mandate as merely a tax would make it more acceptable to Americans who don't like being told outright what to do."
And Jonah Goldberg weighs in (italics added) at NRO:
In the majority opinion written by Roberts, the Supreme Court held that the mandate to buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause. But Roberts also found that it's constitutional under Congress's power to tax.

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