Health Care Question

[Steven Jamar]

Buying and not buying health insurance is clearly just as much an economic
activity as growing or not growing (or eating what you grow) wheat.
 Aggregate all the health insurance purchases together, and you have a
substantial impact.  That is Wickard -- of course one can read it narrowly
and distinguish it.

But clearly health care system and insurance issues affect interstate
commerce in a very substantial way, in the aggregate.

On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 1:49 PM, Christopher Green <crgreen at olemiss.edu>wrote:

>  The key argument distinguishing *Wickard* is that failing to buy health
> insurance isn't an "activity."  Wickard's key holding, 317 U.S. at 125, is
> that "even if appellee's *activity *be local and though it may not be
> regarded as commerce, it may still, whatever its nature, be reached by
> Congress if it exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce
> and this irrespective of whether such effect is what might at some earlier
> time have been defined as 'direct' or 'indirect.' "  Limiting the
> consumption of home-grown wheat is different from a mandate to buy
> insurance.
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu [mailto:
> conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] *On Behalf Of *Steven Jamar
> *Sent:* Monday, March 22, 2010 11:20 AM
> *Cc:* CONLAWPROFS professors
> *Subject:* Re: Health Care Question
>
> I'm clearly  missing something.  I thought Wickard was still good law.  And
> I thought the whole, comprehensive scheme was benefit enough.  I am
> unfamiliar with the need for the federal government to bribe each person
> individually.
>
> As I said, I'm clearly missing something.
>
> Steve
>
>  On Mar 22, 2010, at 10:03 AM, Eric Segall wrote:
>
>  How many people think Justice Kennedy would uphold a federal requirement
> that every citizen has to buy health insurance without the requirement being
> tied to a federal benefit of some kind?
>
> Wouldn't this implicate his libertarian tendencies?
>
> Eric Segall
> Profesor of Law
> Georgia State College of Law
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>   --
> Prof. Steven D. Jamar                     vox:  202-806-8017
> Associate Director, Institute of Intellectual Property and Social Justice
> http://iipsj.org
> Howard University School of Law           fax:  202-806-8567
> http://iipsj.com/SDJ/
>
>  "It is by education I learn to do by choice, what other men do by the
> constraint of fear."
>
>
> Aristotle
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Prof. Steven Jamar
Howard University School of Law
Associate Director, Institute of Intellectual Property and Social Justice
(IIPSJ) Inc.
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