SCOTUS Health Care

Short version – in terms of mandates etc…Chief Justice Roberts basically did what he said he’d do per this 2005 Eduwonk post.

4 Replies to “SCOTUS Health Care”

  1. Justice Ginsburg completely disagrees with you here, Andy (and I do too). From her opinion: “The Chief Justice — for the first time ever — finds an exercise of Congress’ spending power unconstitutionally coercive.” Roberts found that Congress could not, repeat not, condition all of a state’s Medicaid funding on the state agreeing to expand Medicaid. Impossible to reconcile that fact with Toobin’s claim, cited in your 2005 post, that Roberts would be *more* deferential to such conditions than O’Connor.

  2. Er, I meant Jeffrey Rosen, not Toobin (though the latter has gotten quite a few things wrong lately too).

  3. I don’t think it’s cut and dry either — in fact, it’s very murky. But there’s no way the ACA decision can be read to strengthen Congress’s ability to attach conditions to federal funds, as Rosen predicted.

    My new piece on the Court decision and waivers will be published soon. I’d also like to take a little credit for seeing this potential trainwreck a few months ago: http://www.newschools.org/blog/the-supreme-court-health-care-and-federal-education-policy

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