The Affordable Care Act Challenges - the Individual Mandate & the Commerce Clause

From March 26-28, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear six hours of arguments relating to the Affordable Care Act, President Obama's healthcare reform legislation.

The most watched question the Court will address concerns the so-called individual mandate provision and whether the requirement that nearly all U.S. citizens obtain health insurance is within Congress' power under the Constitution's Commerce Clause.

Prof. Sheldon Nahmod of the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law and author of the Nahmod Law blog discusses the issue.

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[andyvphil]

Circa 2:20 Nahmod asserts that the Constitution Art.1 Sec. 8 gives Congress the right to regulate intrastate commerce if it affects interstate commerce. But this is an invention of the New Deal era cowed Supreme Court that appears nowhere in the text, a distinction he fails to make. It took 70 years or so to make absolutely clear that decision ultimately left no space for federalism (and the SCOTUS still won't reverse) but failing to reverse it will continue to have terrible effects.

[RPDBY]

very good explanation