Florida v. HHS

CIR Files Brief in ObamaCare Challenge

Together with former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, CIR filed an amicus brief in Florida v. HHS, challenging the individual mandate portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2012, popularly known as “ObamaCare.” The brief challenged the government’s view that Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce includes the power to compel individuals to engage in interstate commerce for the purpose of purchasing health insurance. 

The brief explained that constitutional text and history, 18th Century usage, and early Supreme Court cases all make clear that the power to regulate interstate commerce was understood to mean the power to regulate existing interstate commerce, not compel the creation of new commerce. 

It noted that the government’s expansive view of Congress’s Commerce Clause authority would convert that clause from a grant of a limited, enumerated power into limitless authority to address any inactivity that in the aggregate creates a national problem.