Just correcting their rather inept term paper. As a tax, I thought this issue couldn't be adjucated until someone had standing, but paying the tax, but the Court can ignore that too, since it's based on their ruling. Don't think that was addressed in the opinion though.
Justice Roberts simply did not read the bill or just pretends that the text of the bill is irrelevant. This is how the Bill will actually be administered in practice. It is so large, sweeping and convoluted, that any public official will cite it at the reason for doing X,Y& Z whether the bill says it or not.
The Bill (Section 1501 individual responsibility,) makes a specific and detailed appeal to the commerce clause for its legitimacy. Will these findings be struck from the bill? It is IMPOSSIBLE to find that these findings are illegitimate, and yet that the bill is constitutional:
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following findings:
(1) IN GENERAL.—The individual responsibility requirement
provided for in this section (in this subsection referred to
as the ‘‘requirement’’) is commercial and economic in nature,
and substantially affects interstate commerce, as a result of
the effects described in paragraph (2).
(2) EFFECTS ON THE NATIONAL ECONOMY AND INTERSTATE
COMMERCE.—øReplaced by section 10106(a)¿ The effects described
in this paragraph are the following:
(A) The requirement regulates activity that is commercial
and economic in nature: economic and financial decisions
about how and when health care is paid for, and
when health insurance is purchased. In the absence of the
requirement, some individuals would make an economic
and financial decision to forego health insurance coverage
and attempt to self-insure, which increases financial risks
to households and medical providers.
Justice Roberts simply did not read the bill or just pretends that the text of the bill is irrelevant. This is how the Bill will actually be administered in practice. It is so large, sweeping and convoluted, that any public official will cite it at the reason for doing X,Y& Z whether the bill says it or not.
The Bill (Section 1501 individual responsibility,) makes a specific and detailed appeal to the commerce clause for its legitimacy. Will these findings be struck from the bill? It is IMPOSSIBLE to find that these findings are illegitimate, and yet that the bill is constitutional:
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following findings:
(1) IN GENERAL.—The individual responsibility requirement
provided for in this section (in this subsection referred to
as the ‘‘requirement’’) is commercial and economic in nature,
and substantially affects interstate commerce, as a result of
the effects described in paragraph (2).
(2) EFFECTS ON THE NATIONAL ECONOMY AND INTERSTATE
COMMERCE.—øReplaced by section 10106(a)¿ The effects described
in this paragraph are the following:
(A) The requirement regulates activity that is commercial
and economic in nature: economic and financial decisions
about how and when health care is paid for, and
when health insurance is purchased. In the absence of the
requirement, some individuals would make an economic
and financial decision to forego health insurance coverage
and attempt to self-insure, which increases financial risks
to households and medical providers.