The Constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

 The US constitution expressly lays out powers of the federal government.  It also expressly states that anything beyond those expressly laid out are given to the States and the people.  This means the federal government cannot act in any way outside of those given powers.

• "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." -- Amendment X, US Constitution 

• Nowhere in the expressed powers of the federal government are they given the power to mandate that every individual must maintain health insurance coverage. 

•  This is the real issue with the mandate.  Not aspects of the mandate detailing certain types of coverage, not religious freedom to exempt certain types of coverage, but the right of individuals or States to not be federally mandated to make purchases or participate in specific commerce by force.  All other side issues are distractions from this one, and only succeed in obscuring and drawing attention from this fact.  These other, more minor, issues only act as a concession, that, but for these minor details, the rest of the Act is good and right.

• This is the goal of the supporters of the Affordable Care Act in furthering these discussions and keeping these petty fights in the news.  These arguments are important and pressing the First Amendment rights are a worthy means to the end of retaining your rights to choose whether to buy a product, but, generally, trying to bring the discussion back to the overall point that a federally mandated commercial action, whether it is buying insurance or buying cell phone, is unconstitutional.

• Those who disagree will point to the commerce clause:

 "[The Congress shall have Power] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and  with the Indian tribes;" -- Article 1, Section 8, US Constitution

• The commerce clause states that the federal government has the power to regulate commerce among the several States, and it can be argued that Healthcare commerce is transacted within and among the states.  however, commerce can only be regulated not forced.  That is, the federal government can regulate, for example beef purchases among the States, but it cannot say that one must purchase beef.
   
   
   
  The constitutionality of the entire mandate is the key issue, and these other more minor discussions distract from this.  It is this constitutionality that will be taken up by the Supreme Court this summer.  Let's hope they make the correct decision to limit the seemingly unlimited power that the commerce clause gives to the federal government.