Georgetown Law Professor Randy Barnett Responds To Judge Hudson's Ruling Declaring Obamacare Individual Mandate Unconstitutional

Randy Barnett wrote in the New York Times:

The days of calling the constitutional challenges to the Affordable Care Act “frivolous” and “political” are now officially over. Judge Hudson’s ruling that the individual insurance mandate is unconstitutional is a milestone in the legal process of deciding whether Congress has the power to command every person in the United States to enter into an economic relationship with a private company. Until 2010, the only mandates ever imposed on American citizens pertained to their citizenship: register for the draft and serve if called, sit on a jury, file a tax return, respond to the census. In the U.S., one cannot even be commanded to vote. If economic mandates like this one are allowed, however, Americans will be demoted from citizens to subjects. They will have to obey any commands that Congress deems convenient to its regulation of interstate commerce. No more expensive tax credits and subsidies to raise taxes to pay for; Congress can just command you to buy its favored products. Forget cash for clunkers; just make Americans buy cars from G.M. Or make them undergo medical exams to save on health care costs. Gone will be a federal government of limited and enumerated powers established by the Constitution and repeatedly affirmed by the Supreme Court. In his ruling today, Judge Hudson recognized that such an unprecedented claim of power had never been sanctioned by the Supreme Court. Tweet