Should the Supreme Court Overturn Obama's Healthcare Law? >
Constitution, Court's Precedent on Affordable Care Act's Side
Both the Constitution and the Supreme Court's precedent support upholding the Affordable Care Act
March 26, 2012
About Ian Millhiser:
Ian Millhiser is a policy analyst with the Center for American Progress and the editor of ThinkProgress Justice.
In the words of Judge Laurence Silberman, a leading conservative who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, the lawsuits challenging the Affordable Care Act have no basis "in either the text of the Constitution or Supreme Court precedent." And Silberman is right. The Constitution gives the United States power to "regulate commerce … among the several states," and there is simply no question that a law which regulates one sixth of the nation's economy regulates the nation's commerce.
This not a particularly new idea. As Chief Justice John Marshall put it nearly two centuries ago, there is "no sort of trade" that the words "regulate Commerce" do not apply to, and these words give the United States "full power over the thing to be regulated." The Affordable Care Act regulates trade in healthcare services, and thus America has the full power to regulate this important market.
[See a collection of political cartoons on healthcare.]
In challenging the Affordable Care Act, the law's opponents seek an unprecedented expansion of judicial power that would eradicate all limits on what the nine unelected judges on the Supreme Court can do. Because their entire legal argument has no basis in the Constitution itself, it eliminates any bounds on what judges can do to impose their will on the American people. If judges are free to ignore the Constitution just this once, they can do it whenever they want, and there will no longer be any limits whatsoever on judicial discretion.
In other words, if judges have the power to strike down the individual mandate, there is nothing preventing the Supreme Court from forcing you to eat broccoli.
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- Other Arguments
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#1200114
Yes — Never before in history has the Congress attempted to force every American to purchase a product of their choosing
PHIL KERPEN, Vice President for Policy at Americans for Prosperity
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#215395
Yes — Congress has no power to mandate commerce into existence
HANS A. VON SPAKOVSKY, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation
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#313997
Yes — Congress exercised unprecedented and unbounded power in passing Obamacare
TREVOR BURRUS, Legal Associate at the Cato Institute
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#4205166
No — Supreme Court must uphold the law and not bow to political pressures
ETHAN ROME, Executive Director of Health Care for America Now
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#5123112
Yes — Obamacare and Romneycare are a threat to freedom
RICK SANTORUM, Republican Candidate for President of the United States
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#788131
No — It would be unconscionable for the Supreme Court to take healthcare gains away from the American people
RON POLLACK, Founding Executive Director of Families USA
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#8105153
No — The Constitution gives the federal government the power to enact national solutions to national problems
ELIZABETH B. WYDRA, Chief Counsel for the Constitutional Accountability Center
