Prestigious Journal Publishes AFLC Scholarly Article on U.S. Supreme Court’s Obamacare Ruling

By on February 27, 2013 in Blog

In keeping with AFLC’s mission as a public policy leader, AFLC Co-Founders and Senior Counsel Robert Muise and David Yerushalmi recently co-authored a scholarly article that criticized the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts in the United States Supreme Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of Obamacare. The article, entitled, “Wearing the Crown of Solomon? Chief Justice Roberts and the Affordable Care Act ‘Tax'”, was published in this month’s edition of the prestigious Duke University Press’s Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law.

Abstract
Attempting to play the role of King Solomon in his PPACA decision, Chief Justice Roberts split the baby perversely by ruling it was not a tax under the Anti-Injunction Act, which would have likely deprived the Court of jurisdiction to hear this pre-enforcement challenge to the individual mandate, but it was a tax for taxing and spending purposes even though Congress said it was a “penalty” and not a tax. And the Chief Justice had to twist further his “wisdom” to hold that it was not an unconstitutional direct tax, even though that is exactly what it is, if it is a tax in the first instance.

If you would like to read the full article, you must purchase a two-day subscription to the Journal by following this link.