How the Supreme Court Doomed the ACA to Failure

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Cato Institute :

How the Supreme Court Doomed the ACA to Failure

 

 

The Roberts “tax” ruling undermines the new health care law.

 

 

By Thomas A. Lambert

Pundits, policy wonks, and law professors (including

this author) were surprised by the U.S. Supreme

Court’s June 28, 2012 ruling on the constitutionality

of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care

Act (ACA). Most observers

expected either a 5–4 vote striking

down the ACA’s so-called “individual mandate” as an overbroad

attempt to regulate interstate commerce,

or a 5–4 or 6–3

vote upholding the mandate as a valid exercise of Commerce

Clause power. Instead, five justices, including Chief Justice John

Roberts, agreed that a mandate to purchase health insurance

from a private

company would exceed Congress’s authority

under the Commerce Clause, but a different five-justice majority,

again including the Chief Justice,

read the statute not to

impose a strict mandate to purchase health insurance,

but

instead to levy a constitutionally valid tax for failure to do so.

The Court also surprised observers by ruling 7–2 that the

ACA unconstitutionally

coerces the states by threatening to deny

all federal Medicaid funding—

The Roberts Court’s Decision

As both Justice Roberts’ opinion for the Court and the joint

dissent of Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence

Thomas, and Samuel Alito emphasized, our federal government

is one of limited powers. The Bill of Rights precludes

the government from imposing rules and taking actions that

violate certain fundamental rights like the freedoms of speech,

association, and religion. In addition, Article I of the Constitution

limits congressional power by exhaustively cataloging the

things Congress is authorized to do; congressional action that

is not authorized is forbidden. Accordingly, for an act of Congress

to pass constitutional muster, it must be both authorized

by the empowering provisions of Article I and not forbidden

by

the constraints in the Bill of Rights.