The Constitution of the United States creates a national government
of enumerated and therefore limited powers. Accordingly, troubled
members of the Court should be applauded for their efforts to search for
the limits to any principle advanced to uphold the health care mandate
of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), not made the target of strident and
caustic criticism. The Court is a great institution, and its members
don’t deserve such abuse.
That should be said, and I want to say it as clearly as I can.
Nonetheless, I submit that sustaining the mandate would not give rise to
the justices’ fears of boundless federal authority.
The individual health mandate surely passes constitutional muster
under settled judicial principles. The Constitution’s Commerce Clause
grants Congress the authority “to regulate commerce … among the
several States.”
