, Columnist
Health Warning: Obamacare Is in Legal Peril Once Again
Many legal scholars are dismissing a new case. Don’t listen to them.
Don’t turn your back.
Photographer: Astrid Riecken/Getty ImagesCould key portions of the Affordable Care Act be declared unconstitutional – years after the Supreme Court upheld them? The Trump administration’s Department of Justice has just filed a brief saying so in a suit by several states that aims to take down the whole program.
Most mainstream legal commentators think the government’s arguments are unconvincing. But it’s crucial to remember that this was exactly the reaction of the same set of people in 2010, when the original argument was made against the individual mandate by libertarian law professor Randy Barnett. Just two years later, five justices of the Supreme Court embraced Barnett’s argument.