The Affordable Care Act Decision

Interest in NFIB v. Sebelius has been extraordinarily high, from as soon as the legislation was passed, through lower court rulings, the Supreme Court's grant of certiorari, and the decision itself, both for its substantive holdings and the purported behind-the-scene dynamics. Legal blogs exploded with analysis, bioethicists opined on our collective responsibilities, and philosophers tackled concepts like 'coercion' and the activity/inactivity distinction. This volume aims to bring together scholars from disparate fields to analyze various features of the decision. It comprises over twenty essays from a range of academic disciplines, namely law, philosophy, and political science. Essays are divided into five units: context and history, analyzing the opinions, individual liberty, Medicaid, and future implications.

Fritz Allhoff is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Western Michigan University, USA and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Australia. Dr. Allhoff serves on the International Committee of Military Medicine in Switzerland. He is the author or editor of nearly thirty books and his papers have been published in top medical ethics journals, including American Journal of Bioethics, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, and Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. Dr. Allhoff is currently finishing a J.D. at the University of Michigan Law School. Mark A. Hall is the Fred and Elizabeth Turnage Professor of Law and Public Health at Wake Forest University, USA, where he co-directs its Master of Arts in Bioethics program and has appointments in the Schools of Law, Medicine, and Business. He is the lead editor of the original textbook in the field, Health Care Law and Ethics (8th ed., 2013) and he has written books on various aspects of health care law and public policy. Professor Hall is currently studying health insurance reform, safety net access for the uninsured, and the legal and ethical implications of consumer-driven health care.

Introduction Fritz Allhoff and Mark A. Hall Unit 1: Context and History 1. NFIB v. Sebelius: Five Takes Glenn H. Reynolds and Brannon P. Denning 2. Popular Constitutionalism and the Affordable Care Act Josh Blackman 3. Metaphysical Philosophers and the 'Practical Statesmanship' of Supreme Court Justices in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius Brian E. Butler 4. By Any Means Necessary? The Constitutionalisation of Healthcare in the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Brazil Jane Marriot and Jamie Fletcher Unit 2: Analyzing the Opinions 5. Fractured Group Speech Acts and the Holding of NFIB v. Sebelius Caleb Mason 6. A Strategy of Increasing Judicial Power in NFIB v. Sebelius Tonja Jacobi 7. The Health Insurance Mandate Really is a Tax, and That's a Good Thing Too Paul Gowder 8. Activity, Inactivity, and Production: Roberts' Commerce Clause Argument Nathan Stout Unit 3: Individual Liberty 9. Autonomy and the ACA Individual Mandate JB Coleman 10. Employers' Rights and the ACA Jessica Flanigan 11. Moral Pluralism and Federal Authority Jacob Affolter 12. The ACA and Religious Liberty: Principles of Adjudication R. Mary Lemmons Unit 4: Medicaid 13. Fiscal Objections to Expanded Health Coverage: A Case Study of the ACA Alex Rajczi 14. In Defence of the ACA's Medicaid Expansion Ishani Maitra and Brian Weatherson 15. Coercion, Political Accountability, and Voter Ignorance: The Mistaken Medicaid Expansion Ruling in NFIB v. Sebelius Alexander A. Guerrero 16. Was the Medicaid Expansion Coercive? I. Glenn Cohen Unit 5: Future Implications 17. Conditional Spending and the Conditional Offer Puzzle Mitchell N. Berman 18. The Health of the Commerce Clause: The Sebelius Decision and the Future of Federal Power Marcus Schulzke and Amanda Cortney Carroll 19. Reflections on the Rule of Law After NFIB v. Sebelius Christopher Boom 20. "The Alien Exclusion: ACA and the Oblique Rights of Those on the Margins" Jill Hernandez