PPACA and the Courts

Rulings

• Judge Vinson ruling declaring Obama healthcare unconstitutional
• Judge Vinson’s Order Staying Health Care Reform Unconstitutional Ruling

Legal Briefs

• Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida. Docket No., 11-398 Anti-Injunction Act. Whether the suit brought by respondents to challenge the minimum coverage provisions of the Patent Protection and Affordable Act is barred by the Anti-Injunction Act 26 U.S.C. §7421(A).
• Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida. Docket No., 11-398 (Minimum Coverage Provision). Beginning in 2014, the minimum coverage provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119, amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-152, 124 Stat. 1029, will require non-exempted individuals to maintain a minimum level of health insurance or pay a tax penalty. 26 U.S.C.A. 5000A. The question presented is whether Congress had the power under Article I of the Constitution to enact the minimum coverage provision.
• Florida v. Department of Health and Human Services. Docket No. 11-400 (Medicaid). Does Congress exceed its enumerated powers and violate basic principles of federalism when it coerces States into accepting onerous conditions that it could not impose directly by threatening to withhold all federal funding under the single largest grant-in-aid program, or does the limitation on Congress’s spending power that this Court recognized in South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203 (1987), no longer apply?
• National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius and Florida v. Department of Health and Human Services. Docket No., 11-393 and Docket No., 11-400.  The Eleventh Circuit and the Sixth Circuit now have issued directly conflicting final judgments about the facial constitutionality of the ACA’s mandate that virtually every individual American must obtain health insurance. 26 U.S.C. § 5000A. Moreover, despite the fact that the mandate is a “requirement” that Congress itself deemed “essential” to the Act’s new insurance regulations, 42 U.S.C. § 18091(a)(2)(I), the Eleventh Circuit held that the mandate is severable from the remainder of the Act. The question presented is whether the ACA must be invalidated in its entirety because it is non-severable from the individual mandate that exceeds Congress’ limited and enumerated powers under the Constitution.

Analysis

Overview

• Alliance for Health Reform. Legal Challenges to Health Reform: An Alliance for Health Reform Toolkit. 5.18.2010. Excellent overview of the legal issues. Includes list of resources summarizing various constitutional arguments pro and con.
• Fried, Charles. Health care law’s enemies have no ally in Constitution. 5.21.2010.
• Greve, Michael. ObamaCare in the Supreme Court. 3.2.2012.
• SCOTUSBlog. Special Feature: Affordable Care Act in depth. A 10-part series examining all aspects of the constitutionality of ACA.
• Shapiro, Ilya. PRO & CON State Suits Against Health Reform Are Well Grounded In Law—And Pose Serious Challenges. Health Affairs, June 2010; 29(6): 1229-1233. Abstract.
• Shapiro, Ilya and Trevor Burris. A Primer on the Constitutionality of Health Reform. Cato Institute, November 3, 2010.
  
• Jeffrey Toobin. Holding Court on Health Care Reform. The New Yorker (3.26.12)
• Debating the Constitutionality of the Federal Health Care Legislation. The Federalist Society 11.18.2010 Event Audio/Video.

Individual Mandate

• Balkin, J.M. The constitutionality of the individual mandate for health insurance. New England Journal of Medicine 2.11.2010;362:482-483. Full Text
• Barnett, Randy. Commandeering the People: Why the Individual Health Insurance Mandate is Unconstitutional. Abstract.
• Dorf, James. The Constitutionality of Health Insurance Reform, Part I: The Misguided Libertarian Objection. 10.21.2009.
• Dorf, James. The Constitutionality of Health Insurance Reform, Part II: Congressional Power. 11.2.2009.
• Greve, Michael.  This you must do. 2.7.2012.
• Greve, Michael.  The PPACA mandate: the government’s best case. 2.9.2012.
• Jensen, Erik. The Individual Mandate and the Taxing Power. 9.27.2010.
• Jost, Timothy S. PRO & CON State Lawsuits Won’t Succeed In Overturning The Individual Mandate. Health Affairs, June 2010; 29(6): 1225-1228. Abstract.

Medicaid Coercion

• Greve, Michael.  Obamacaid revisited: against balance. 2.10.2012.
• Greve, Michael.  Obamacaid’s constitutional poison. 2.14.2012.
• Greve, Michael.  Obamacare and Medicaid: yet more pre-argument argument. 3.14.2012
• Greve, Michael.  Obamacare and Medicaid: more pre-argument arguments. 3.15..2012

News

• aca litigation blog (Brad Joondeph, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University). A place to find news updates, legal analysis, and all official documents related to the states’ constitutional challenges to PPACA, including amicus curiae briefs filed by numerous individuals such as John Boehner and organizations such as the American Hospital Assocation.
• Health Care Lawsuits (Independent Women’s Forum). This is a project of the Independent Women’s Forum, which is a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting the principles of economic liberty, free markets, and personal responsibility.
• Kaiser Health News. Scoreboard: Tracking Health Law Court Challenges. KHN is tracking the status of 26 federal lawsuits seeking to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and will update those and other new cases on this page.
• ObamaCare Watch, Legal Challenges has news related to PPACA court cases.