The Health Care Case: The Supreme Court's Decision and Its Implications

by Nathaniel Persily, Gillian E. Metzger, Trevor W. Morrison

Overview

The Supreme Court's decision in the Health Care Case, NFIB v. Sebelius, gripped the nation's attention during the spring of 2012. No one could have predicted the strange coalition of justices and arguments that would eventually lead the Court to uphold the Affordable Care Act's principal provisions. The constitutional case against the ACA was originally written off as frivolous, but after oral argument at the Court, many predicted that the unthinkable had now become likely. When the Supreme Court delivered its complicated and fractured decision, it offered new interpretations to four different clauses in the Constitution. This volume gathers together reactions to the decision from an ideologically diverse selection of the nation's leading scholars of constitutional, administrative, and health law. They offer novel insights into the meaning of the health care decision for President Obama, the Roberts Court, and the debate over constitutional interpretation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199301065
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	06/12/2013
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Nathaniel Persily is the Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law and Political Science at Columbia Law School.

Gillian Metzger is the Vice Dean and Stanley H. Fuld Professor of Law at Columbia Law School.

Trevor Morrison is the Liviu Librescu Professor of Law at Columbia Law School.

Table of Contents

Contributors
Introduction, Nathaniel Persily, Gillian E. Metzger, and Trevor W. Morrison
Part I Reflections on the Supreme Court's Decision
1 The Court Affirms the Social Contract
Jack M. Balkin
2 Who Won the Obamacare Case?
Randy E. Barnett
3 A Most Improbable 1787 Constitution: A (Mostly) Originalist Critique of the Constitutionality of the ACA
Richard A. Epstein
4 The June Surprises: Balls, Strikes, and the Fog of War
Charles Fried
5 Much Ado: The Potential Impact of the Supreme Court Decision Upholding the Affordable Care Act
Robert N. Weiner
Part II Lines of Argument: Commerce, Taxing and Spending, Necessary and Proper, and Due Process
6 The Missing Due Process Argument
Jamal Greene
7 "Necessary," "Proper," and Health Care Reform
Andrew Koppelman
8 The Presumption of Constitutionality and the Individual Mandate
Gillian E. Metzger and Trevor W. Morrison
9 The Individual Mandate and the Proper Meaning of "Proper"
Ilya Somin
Part III The Important Role of the Chief Justice
10 Judicial Minimalism, the Mandate, and Mr. Roberts
Jonathan H. Adler
11 Is it the Roberts Court?
Linda Greenhouse
12 More Law than Politics: The Chief, the "Mandate," Legality, and Statesmanship
Neil S. Siegel
13 The Secret History of the Chief Justice's Obamacare Decision
John Fabian Witt
Part IV The Decision's Implications
14 Federalism by Waiver After the Health Care Case
Samuel R. Bagenstos
15 The Health Care Case in the Public Mind: Opinion on the Supreme Court and Health Reform in a Polarized Era
Andrea Louise Campbell and Nathaniel Persily
16 How Federalism Looks Now: Medicaid and the Nationalizing Effect of the Supreme Court's Old-Fashioned Federalism in Health Reform
Abbe R. Gluck
17 Constitutional Uncertainty and the Design of Social Insurance: Reflections on the ACA Case
Michael J. Graetz and Jerry L. Mashaw
18 The Affordable Care Act and the Constitution: Beyond National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius
Timothy Stoltzfus Jost
19 Medicaid's Next Fifty Years: Aligning an Old Program With the New Normal
Sarah Rosenbaum
20 Health Policy Devolution and the Institutional Hydraulics of the ACA
Theodore W. Ruger

Editorial Reviews

"Truly one-stop shopping for anyone interested in understanding the meaning and significance of the historic health care cases of 2012. With contributions by some of the most insightful and influential thinkers in the field, this volume clarifies and expands upon what the ACA litigation did and did not signify, what it says about the legacy of the Roberts Court, and where we go from here. An invaluable read."-Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor, Slate

"This is a wonderful collection of essays about "the case of the century" by the nation's leading scholars. Each page yields new and valuable insight."-Barry Friedman, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law, New York University School of Law

"This remarkable book shows beyond doubt that, contrary to Justice Robert Jackson's famous quip, the Supreme Court is neither infallible nor final. The health care case is over, but the argument over what it will mean has just begun. Anyone who seeks an appreciation of the stakes of that debate will find this diverse set of provocative essays indispensable reading."-Michael C. Dorf, Robert S. Stevens Professor, Cornell University Law School

From the Publisher